Total Lockdown
by Jen89
Summary: Sequel to 'Excuses'. Picks up a few months into House and Cameron's relationship but smooth sailing doesn't always last. Things outside of their control soon get in the way and House has to work against the clock to save Cameron and a whole department.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Neither House M.D. or anything else you recognise is mine.**

_Hello again guys. _

_This is the sequel to 'Excuses' although I don't think it's strictly necessary to read that first. Basically it was the story of how House and Cameron got together and this will deal with their progressing relationship. Chase and Cameron broke up and while she was growing closer to House, Chase met another doctor, new to the hospital, called Vikki Tatum. She's not his girlfriend but they are good friends. Anyway, this picks up around a few months after the end of 'Excuses.' _

_This chapter is quite short just to start off with.  
_

_Hope you enjoy it._

_Jenny._

Total Lockdown.

Chapter 1.

"House, what are you doing now?"

"You mean you don't know?"

Cameron studied him for a few moments, drinking in the sight of him sat cross legged under the table, apparently hiding from something. This was a feat made even more useless by the fact that the desk had no front and so he was in plain view of everyone passing the office. "No. Can't say I do. Do you?"

House leaned back to observe her over the top of his desk. "Honestly? Not entirely sure, no. I'm pretty certain it started off as a way to annoy Cuddy but it would just be stupid to give up now."

"She's tearing her hair out down there."

House smirked but said nothing.

"You can't just refuse to do clinic duty."

"Why? I've done it before."

"Not this adamantly. It's your job! Well, part of it at least. She needs all hands on deck, as it were. It's chaos down there. Just... just come out and go downstairs."

House just stared determinedly back at her but his face had a small smile and his eyes were warmer than a few months previously as he looked at her.

Cameron let out a grunt of frustration. "Urgh! You're so irritating! You're like a child."

House's smile spread. "You know you love me, Allison."

Cameron's head shot up. "Is that what this is about? You want me to tell you and you'll do clinic duty?" House nodded. "Promise?" Another nod.

"Okay. I love you, Greg. Now come and do clinic duty?"

"But then it looks like I'm giving up!"

"Greg. Clinic. Now."

He stood up muttering under his breath but couldn't help smiling widely at Cameron's faux stern face as he passed her.

"I don't wanna! Do you seriously enjoy causing me additional pain?"

"What I live for." She rolled her eyes. "Now go on. The sooner you get down there, the sooner you can leave."

"Undeniably logical I'll admit, but I'd rather not go down at all and not do clinic duty."

"You can't always get what you want, Greg." She quoted, smirking knowing she'd got him there. How could he argue with the words of his idol? If he would ever admit to having anything as normal as an idol.

He glared at her.

"Fine. But don't think I'm staying there long and don't think I'll let you forget this cruel, torturous act of yours anytime soon." Cameron smiled at his retreating back before hastily following. As she caught up with him he glanced across at her. "Following me? Don't you trust me?"

"Not when it comes to clinic duty, no. And I'm not really following you I'm just heading in the same direction. Got to go the ER."

"So you get out of clinic duty? That's not fair."

"I'm needed in the ER. It's my _job_. Unlike you I wouldn't hide to avoid doing it."

They entered the elevator when it arrived and descended together. Reaching the ground floor they stepped out together.

"I'll see you later?" Cameron said as she turned to walk in the opposite direction to the clinic. House, who had been eyeing said clinic with ill-disguised dislike, turned at the sound of her voice.

"Yeah, okay. I'll page you when I've given up enough of my soul to be allowed to exit hell. You finish at five, right?" Cameron nodded. "I'll see you later then." He gave her a small smile, a slight upturning at the corner of his lips which were becoming more common nowadays, ever since he had decided that Cameron was worth trying for. And she was so glad. Admittedly it was early days, but Cameron personally thought things were going rather well. He was still his snarky, acerbic self but seemed to have acquired a softer edge, or at least a way of blunting his barbs so they didn't sting quite so much when they were flung at people in a temper. He seemed happier than he had been and perfectly content to let things slide along the way they had been.

She returned his smile and he averted his gaze back to the doorway to the clinic and sighed. Cuddy was leaning out of the gap gesturing furiously for House to join her.

Cameron smirked. "You better go. Actually, I should too."

"Bye."

"Bye."

They turned simultaneously and headed in opposite directions.

* * *

Cameron sighed, frustrated despite only having been there a couple of hours. There was still two thirds of her shift left. She brushed her hair off her sweaty forehead in a desperate attempt to cool herself down. Would it kill them to open a window? In all fairness, it probably wasn't all that warm, but with the amount of dashing about she had been doing, it felt as though it were fluctuating around 200 degrees. 200 degrees centigrade that is, not Fahrenheit.

"Right, Mr Ryder, test results back. Er..." she paused while flicking her eyes over the all important sheet clutched in her sweatier than usual palm.

"Are you alright?" the patient was concerned and she looked up, disoriented.

"I'm just fine, thanks. More importantly, so are you. Tests reveal no heart disease. It's heartburn. You were right to call the ambulance, though as any heart problems should be treated very seriously. We'll get you some pills from the pharmacy and you can go." She looked up at him and gave him a smile which he returned willingly.

"Thanks Doctor Cameron."

"No problem." She left the cubicle and walked back towards the nurse's station. Without stopping or even slowing her gait, she placed Mr Ryder's file in the outpatient's tray and picked up another from the pile of patient's still to be treated. Flicking it open she read as she walked, asking a nurse to retrieve some heartburn pills for Mr Ryder as she passed.

"Female, 29, collapsed with breathing difficulties, came into the ER an hour ago..." Cameron read the file under her breath. It sounded an innocuous enough problem. It shouldn't be too difficult. She wasn't sure if that made it better or worse. On the one hand, a problem too taxing might be too much for her mind in its current state, tired from the heat. However, a problem too simple might be, dare she say, too... _boring_. She smirked at the thought. House really was rubbing off on her. The thought that her boyfriend, who was probably just as bored in the clinic, was expecting to meet her later perked her up a little and, rejuvenated, she opened the curtain with a smile.

"Holly Byrne?"

* * *

If Cameron was slightly bored in the ER, it was nothing compared to the 'bored-out-of-his-skull' feeling House was experiencing. He was sitting in exam room 3 with a patient who was talking about... oh, God knows what he was talking about. House glanced at his wrist, conveniently at eye level where his hands were resting on his cane, propped up before him. This patient had been describing symptoms now for just over seven minutes. If House hadn't fallen into a heat-induced stupor about an hour ago, he might have found the energy to be impressed with the man's stamina in warmth so intense that he could see it rising in waves from the window-sill outside.

"Doctor? Doctor House?" House was rudely pulled away from thoughts of Cameron's incandescent face, lit softly by the lights in her favourite Chinese restaurant the night before, and her eyes looking at him happily to face the patient clicking his fingers in front of him in a most distracting manner.

House stood up suddenly causing the man to lean back suddenly to avoid being head butted. He looked up at House, startled. House felt in his pocket for the familiar cylindrical bottle and pulled it out, shaking out two pills as he started talking.

"You have arthritis." He paused for a moment to allow this to sink in and to swallow the oval pills in his palm. "Astounding as it is that you could ramble on for so long about such a common condition, I'm actually more amazed that you haven't equated joint pain to the fact that _you're getting older_. It's arthritis, nothing sinister. I'll write you a prescription for painkillers- not these because they're mine-" House broke off momentarily to wave the orange Vicodin bottle in front of the man's face before placing it back in its home in his pocket. "-and I also recommend ethanol. Lots of it."

"Ethanol?" the patient was clearly very confused. House handed the man a hastily written prescription.

"Alcohol. It might make you less boring. I doubt it but anything for a cause that good has got to be worth a shot. Take that to the pharmacy." With a point at the prescription, House left the room, slamming his hand on the nurse's station as he reached it. Cuddy arrived beside him suddenly and he found himself wondering how she had managed to sneak up so quietly.

"Done?" She asked with a bright voice and a sunny smile that fooled nobody, least of all House. "Here's another then. Off you go." She slapped another file into his outstretched hand and he groaned loudly.

"Can't I just go? Most of the waiting room's been cleared."

"No. Doctor Silverson's just left so we're still not wonderfully staffed."

"Not fair!" House whined childishly. "Why does she get to go?"

"Her daughter's gone into labour."

House stared. "Now that's _really_ not fair. I don't have a daughter! I can't use that excuse."

Cuddy turned her head away, trying to hide a smile at his antics. He picked up on it of course and gave a self-satisfied grin. Cuddy composed herself and looked back at him, albeit with some of the warm mirth still present in her eyes. "No, you can't use that. So," she pointed at the file in his hand. "Exam room 2. Now."

House's shoulders sagged and he sighed over-dramatically before turning and limping back to the exam rooms, Cuddy watching him with an amused smile the whole time.


	2. Chapter 2

_Hi again!_

_Thanks to everyone for reading, reviewing or alerting the last chapter. I'm glad so many people liked it. Hope you like the next one too._

_Jenny._

Total Lockdown.

Chapter 2

Apparently not as straight forward as it had first seemed, Cameron's patient Holly had quickly developed an unexpected and worrying fever. Cameron stood near the nurse's station with a furrowed brow and surveyed the file she held, her lower lip between her teeth.

"Something bothering you, doctor Cameron?"

"Hmm?" Cameron looked up at the soft voice and found she was looking into the face of a nurse by the name of Naomi. She blinked, clearing her vision. God, the heat was giving her a headache. "Yeah, I'm fine. Someone needs to turn on the air-con though." She looked around distracted and noticed that several of the medical staff had already forgone their lab coats and she smirked as she was reminded of a certain other doctor who avoided wearing his coat at all costs.

"Broken." Naomi replied. "Cuddy called someone but they can't get here until tomorrow. Until then the hospital's just going to have to boil."

Cameron was slightly surprised at this bit of news. It was affecting the whole hospital? She felt a wave of sympathy for House as she thought of him imprisoned in the clinic. It was bound to be even more unbearable for him in this heat. She snickered to herself as another thought followed quickly on the tail of that one. _He_ was bound to be more unbearable in this heat. She definitely wouldn't want to be in the position of any of his patients.

Even for summer the weather was unusually warm for New Jersey. The high temperature had been persisting into the nights and Cameron had been waking up in the early hours, throwing her constricting blankets off and onto the floor and allowing the night to cool her skin. She would never complain about being too cold again, she decided. Still heat had never made her as light headed as this.

She suddenly realised a few seconds had passed and Naomi was clearly expecting an answer, regarding her with growing concern.

"Great." The sarcastic edge to her voice had grown more pronounced since entering a relationship with House, one of the less pleasant changes his increased presence had caused in her life. She glanced up at the clock. "On the bright side, I'm halfway through my shift."

Naomi smirked. "Lucky you. I've only been here an hour." Naomi smiled and moved away and Cameron looked down, frowning at the results. What was going on?

Looking around the room, she noticed it was relatively quiet. All the patients were either waiting on results or being treated. She decided the best thing she could do was to go and examine Holly Byrne again, to see if there had been any change in the past half hour or so. As she walked across the polished floor, accompanied by the sound of a man coughing across the room, nurses talking about blood tests at the nurse's station and her own heels on the floor, her mind drifted back to House and she allowed herself a secret smile.

* * *

"Wilson!" James Wilson's head turned at the sound of a voice calling him across the clinic. Not that he really needed to of course, there was nobody else who felt comfortable holding a shouted conversation across a room, disturbing the quiet and discomfiting thirty people who, Wilson suspected, if they were honest didn't really wish to be privy to House's inner thoughts. Sure enough House was heading quickly towards him, followed by the eyes of several startled patients and being glanced at every now and then by a few more who were clearly trying to not be seen looking.

"What is it House?"

"So, I see the she-devil caught you too."

"Cuddy? No, I've not seen her. I've got no patients for another hour so I thought I'd help out down here. Get some clinic time done."

House gaped and Wilson quickly combed his mind for anything that he could have done to offend House recently. Had he accidently taken a bottle of Vicodin home with him? Had he taped over an episode of General Hospital? Wilson couldn't see why on earth he could have done either of these things seeing as he didn't have access to House's hidden tape stash and there was no way in hell he would ever have made the hideous oversight to take House's Vicodin, mistakenly or otherwise. Especially not on purpose. He wasn't suicidal.

"What? You're here when you don't have to be? Are you out of your God-damned mind? You could have just stayed in your office and instead you wander happily into the jaws of death? Quite frankly it's a marvel that people like you survived during the whole evolution thing. How do you even dress yourself without falling over and knocking yourself out?" Apparently House had gotten his voice back.

Wilson resisted the urge to step back, to step away from this intense over-reaction. God, House was more irritable than usual today. It was probably the heat. He grinned when House's eyes flickered, almost imperceptibly in the direction of the ER, which was in full view of the clinic through the glass walls, and, Wilson could only assume, one Allison Cameron. Oh yes, it was the probably the temperature combined with the thought of his girlfriend being so close and yet he couldn't see her.

Wilson had overtly expressed on several occasions that he was pleased of his friend's new relationship. Secretly, he sometimes worried that maybe they were going a bit too fast but he knew House could take care of himself if the need arose. He was stronger than he sometimes seemed and Wilson trusted Cameron. She had been waiting for so long now and she seemed just as happy with him as he was with her.

"Like I said, nothing else to do. How long have you been here?"

"A few hours. Which is a few hours too long so, if you don't mind, and even if you do," House looked around surreptitiously and stepped ever so slightly closer. He lowered his voice to a whisper, "I'm breaking out."

Wilson raised an eyebrow as he watched House attempt to creep around the nurse's station. Creep being the best word for what House was actually doing because Wilson was not really sure if there really was a word for leaning his back on the desk and sliding along it to keep as much weight off his feet as possible. He guessed that by doing this House intended to avoid using his cane (which, as practical as it was, was a beacon alerting Cuddy to his position) until he was nearer the doors but it was hardly an inconspicuous action. In fact many of the patients who had been staring when House first called his name were staring in their direction once again.

Finally House managed to make it until he was facing the doors. With one last look around him to check Cuddy was safely busy somewhere out of sight, he pushed himself off the desk and made his way as fast as he could over the short distance to the doors. Faster than Wilson could believe, House was through them.

Once in the entrance hall he turned and flashed Wilson a smug smile, which promptly disappeared when he spotted someone over Wilson's shoulder and quickly ducked to the left, out of the eye line of whoever it was. Wilson glanced over his shoulder and turned fully to face the woman when his suspicions were confirmed.

Cuddy, leaning out of a door down the hall, looked around the waiting room in confusion before she spotted Wilson. She stepped out of the exam room and moved towards Wilson who merely stood waiting for her. She looked all around him, even going so far as to lean slightly to look behind him as though she felt that a bad-tempered diagnostician with an infarction could hide by crouching behind his friend. Finally she met his eye.

"Have you seen House? He still has a patient waiting in exam room 1."

Wilson smiled to himself. "Hello to you too. And no, I haven't seen him all day. Unfortunately if he's escaped I don't think you'll be seeing him for the rest of the day either."

Cuddy observed him closely and he could tell the second she worked it out. She sighed and closed her eyes briefly. "You know he's gone, don't you?"

"Yes." Wilson responded immediately, nodding to underline his answer.

"And he's not coming back."

"I wouldn't bet your life savings on it, no."

Cuddy sighed. "Well. I'm surprised he stayed this long. Cameron seems to be having a very good influence on him work-wise." Wilson raised an eyebrow. "Well, a bit." She amended. After all he had stayed longer than she had expected. Wilson smiled and turned to pick up a file. Cuddy followed suit and sighed. "Better get started then now we're down another doctor."

Wilson nodded in agreement.

* * *

Cameron was tired, hot and utterly perplexed. In short, she was not in the best of moods. Holly had begun coughing in earnest whenever she had tried to speak and the act was physically draining. She had dropped off to sleep a while ago, leaving Cameron with two new symptoms to add to breathing difficulties. Coughing, fever and breathing difficulties could be indicative of hundreds of diseases and with no further way of narrowing it down, Cameron was forced to conclude that Holly Byrne would not be leaving any time soon.

A noise drew her attention from across the room. Someone was having a violent bout of coughing. She looked, concerned in the direction of the sound and saw a man bent over in his bed. A doctor walked over to him with a glass of water which he took and greedily swallowed it down. Once assured the patient was alright the doctor left him and started walking towards the station where Cameron stood.

"Is he alright?" Cameron asked when the doctor, Brendan Hall, reached her, nodding towards his patient.

Brendan Hall looked back over his shoulder. "Yeah. It's just weird. He came in with a suspected fractured fibula and while waiting to be taken for an X-ray he seems to be developing a fever and can't stop coughing."

Cameron's brow furrowed. That didn't sound good. Her eyes flicked towards Holly Byrne's cubicle. Not good at all.

"Strange. Look, if he has any trouble breathing, could you let me know?"

"Why?"

"Just let me know please." She started to walk away leaving Brendan staring after her but his voice pulled her back.

"He was a bit breathless a while ago."

Cameron whipped back around. "Then we have to tell Cuddy. I think we have a contagion on our hands."

* * *

Ten minutes later Cuddy looked through the glass door into House's darkened office. She squinted but still was not entirely sure whether he was in there or not. It was hard to tell with the lights out in the hall contrasting with the dark inside. She tried the door and found that it was unlocked. Stepping into the office she found it was mercifully cooler than the corridor and inhaled deeply, filling her lungs with cool air.

She looked towards the desk. He wasn't there and there was no noise in the conference room to indicate he was in there either. She turned to leave once again but as she turned she saw him reclining in the chair by the door. She jumped a little, startled, but quickly recovered her composure and folded her arms over her chest.

"Where did you disappear to?"

"I would have thought the answer was fairly obvious: here."

Cuddy rolled her eyes. "House, please. We have a problem. People are getting sick..."

"Really? What a surprise. This is a hospital, Cuddy, people only come here if they're sick."

Cuddy threw a hand up to cover her eyes, massaging her forehead in exasperation. "That's not what I mean. I mean in the ER. Something contagious seems to be going around. I've had to shut it off. Everyone's being diverted to Princeton General except the ones who are already in there. It's causing a lot of problems so I need you in the clinic so I can sort it all out."

House was silent, her words slowly sinking in. She stared at him, wondering for a moment why he was silent. House was never without a mocking comment. It seemed he was equally as quick witted in sarcasm as he was in solving medical cases.

Finally he spoke.

"ER."

Instantly she understood why he was quiet. "Yes."

"Cameron? What about her? Is she still in there?" He lifted his head up to meet her eyes and pinned her to the spot. She couldn't lie to him now, even if she wanted to.

"I'm sorry. Yes."

He sat in silence for a few seconds before standing abruptly and pulling open the door leading to the hall. She hastily followed as he made his way to the elevator as fast as he could. "That settles it then." He said suddenly, almost to himself.

"What? Settles what?" she looked at him as they entered the elevator which had arrived just as they reached it.

House looked at her as if only just realising she was there. "There's no way I'm going to the clinic now." He told her, as if the answer was obvious. "I'm going to the ER." The elevator doors closed behind them and began travelling down to the entrance hall.


	3. Chapter 3

_Hi everyone._

_Sorry it's been a while but it's been a busier week than I thought it would be and you know, life happens. Anyway, thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, hope you enjoy the next._

_Jenny._

* * *

Total Lockdown.

Chapter 3.

With alacrity that, quite frankly, astounded Lisa Cuddy, House was out of the doors of the elevator before her brain had even begun to register they were opening. She quickly followed, continuing her protestations from the journey down.

"You can't go in there, you know! House!" he was ignoring her. The volume of her voice raised slightly for all the good it would do her. "House! It's under quarantine. We don't know what's going on. Until we do..." she scooted in front of him just as he reached the doors to the ER. "Nobody goes in or out." He stared down at her, eyes dark and impenetrable. "House." Her voice took on a plaintive note and he took his eyes from hers.

"I know. I can't go in. I get it. But I still want to see her." His hand dug into his pocket, unhindered by a lab coat and pulled out his cell phone.

"No." He started pressing buttons, evidently scrolling through his phonebook. "House, no! You know you can't use that in here. Anyway, there's no point trying. She'll keeps it switched off in her locker. You know that." House pulled his attention back to the woman in front of him, his thumb hovering over the 'call' button. Upside down, Cuddy could read the name 'Allison' on the display.

"What do you suggest then, oh-mighty-all-seeing-all-knowing-one? It's the fastest way."

"Not if she doesn't have her phone with her, it's not. I'll page her. What do you want? Just for her to come to the doors?"

"Well, in an ideal world she would come out here but if that's really the best there is then it'll have to do." House didn't even try to keep the contempt out of his voice and Cuddy reflected, not for the first time, how much of a calming influence Cameron seemed to have on him when she was around. And apparently the reverse was true. When he knew he couldn't be around her for a while, he got a whole lot worse.

Cuddy walked over to the front desk and engaged the attention of a receptionist, Ralph. She communicated the message she wanted him to send and looked over at a tetchy House. She looked back at Ralph. "If you can send that soon, as in immediately, that'd be great." Ralph watched her walk away, back to House and swiftly did as he was told.

House watched Cuddy walk back towards him and fidgeted from foot to foot, already impatient. He wanted to see her. He needed to check she was okay. It seemed illogical even to him. Cuddy would've surely told him if there was anything wrong with Cameron but that didn't stop him wanting to verify it, beyond a doubt, with his own eyes.

Even in the midst of the anxious racing of his mind, he found a microsecond to be slightly amused at this. What had she done to him? She had only been his girlfriend for about three months. _Three months, two weeks and a day,_ his mind corrected and he grimaced at this extra evidence of the change she had wrought on him.

He had changed, and to realise just how much was alarming. He still had to fight to quieten the alarm bells when they sounded every now and then inside his head. _Get out, get out, you're unprotected, too exposed, too vulnerable, get out!_ But usually all it took was squeeze of her hand or a smile flashed casually his way and his tense muscles relaxed, and he let himself carry on.

She hadn't tried to change him as he feared but changes had come as a natural consequence of opening his life to someone else. He had begun to notice the more banal things (such as the length of time they had been together) and, although outwardly maintaining his lofty demeanour, he had become softer when in her presence. He had become more caring, although only to her.

His eyes scanned the ER through the glass doors, skipping over nurses and doctors rushing from side to side, actively seeking the one he wanted to see out. What was taking so long? It had to be at least 30 seconds since the message had been sent.

Finally, with a rush of relief that was completely unexpected as he hadn't quite realised just how anxious he had been to see her, he saw her figure appeared between a wandering patient and a crouching doctor speaking in hushed tones to a fearful looking chid.

She reached the doors and stopped about three feet shy of them, eyes fixed on his face as she smiled warmly. House appreciated that she was trying to reassure him but it looked rather strained and unnatural so had the complete opposite effect.

"Are you alright?" He raised his voice slightly and accompanied the question with a small hand gesture to ensure she understood.

"Fine." Her elevated voice came back, muffled by the glass but he was still able to discern her speech. "But we're still not sure what's going on."

"Are you feeling alright though?" he felt a little like a dog with a bone but he was not willing to let it go unless he was absolutely assured of her wellbeing.

She nodded. "I seem okay so far. Hopefully I'll avoid whatever it is."

As comforting as her words were, House could not resist the urge to do a swift visual check himself.

He let his eyes skim over her form quickly, assessing and analysing as he would any patient. She _looked_ alright. Well, she looked as gorgeous as ever if he was allowed to dwell on her physical appearance, but maybe he was a bit biased. What he meant was he couldn't see anything outwardly wrong with her that would indicate the presence of a contagious and dangerous disease. A little flushed maybe, but there was a lot going on around her; she had been rushing about and the heating was broken. It was only natural she be a little warm.

However, he had been in this line of work long enough to know that just because he couldn't see something didn't mean it wasn't there. In the world of infectious diseases a thousand and one threats could lurk unseen below the surface. Her body could very easily be hiding something raging inside of her. But he knew her well enough to know she wouldn't appreciate him pushing the issue and now _really_ wasn't the time to pick a fight with her. With the maintenance man for not fixing the air conditioning sooner and adding to her discomfort, maybe, with Cuddy, always, but not with Allison.

The rational portion of his mind told him it wasn't Cuddy's fault. She couldn't have predicted this would happen and that Cameron would be quarantined with an unknown disease but he honestly didn't feel like being too rational. In blaming someone he could shift some of the fear into the more familiar region of anger.

Anger was useful. Anger he could control, channel into something productive. It was a strong, albeit unpleasant, emotion that heightened his need to be right and so generally increased his determination to solve his puzzle, his game, as fast as possible. Looking at Cameron, knowing she was at risk, he didn't necessarily need another incentive but it couldn't hurt to have just that little bit more power behind him.

House brought his eyes back to Cameron, who was staring straight at him with her eyebrows raised, evidently aware of the check he had just been doing.

"I told you I'm fine." She turned her gaze in Cuddy's direction. "Any chance of getting someone in to fix the air conditioning? Everyone's boiling in here."

Cuddy looked sympathetic. "I'm trying Cameron, I promise I'm trying. Maintenance has had a look but it looks complicated. It's a big job and they say it should take them until tomorrow to fix it."

Cameron's looked surprised but nodded acceptingly, whereas House was incensed. He had not missed the implication that Cuddy believed that Cameron would be in the ER at least overnight, and it was this more than anything that upset him and fuelled his ire.

"_Tomorrow?!_ What the hell are they doing? You're the Dean of Medicine; surely you have enough leverage to make your employees do what you want?"

Cuddy shot him a sharp look while Cameron smirked despite her discomfort. "Has my 'leverage' ever worked with you? When have you ever done what I ask?"

House was stunned into silence for a few moments, his mouth opening and closing while he struggled to find the words. Finally growing bored of his admittedly impressive fish impression, his voice finally decided to make an appearance.

"That's... different. I have tenure. I can afford to do whatever the hell I want."

"That's not the way it works, House. I do wish that, just once, you'd do what you were told."

"I know you do. But that's not the issue. The issue is why you can't control the maintenance men any better than you can control me."

Cuddy turned fully to face House now, anger across her face. "They aren't like you. They legitimately cannot fix it before tomorrow. They actually do their job, which I can understand is a foreign concept to you. Take right now for example. I asked you to go to the clinic and you haven't."

House looked at her derisively. "You come to my office, tell me to go to the clinic because you have to solve a problem where my girlfriend is trapped in the ER with a possibly dangerous disease, and you expect me to go to the clinic? I thought it was against hospital policy to drink during the work day?"

Cuddy barely had time to start glaring at him properly when the sound of Cameron clearing her throat drew their attention back to the woman behind the glass. Cameron looked from one to the other sternly. They had all the appearance of two children caught fighting over who had the better toy.

"As much as I enjoy listening to the pair of you arguing like children do you mind not doing it right now?" She smiled as they at least had the courtesy to look sheepish. "Good."

"Right then. Allison, I'm going to need you to tell me everything that's been happening in there." House was suddenly business like again, although there was a soft side to his authoritative tone. "I'm going to get you out of there."

Cameron smiled. "Thanks Greg." Cuddy, recognising her cue to leave, headed off to inform the ambulance team that any incoming patients had to be taken to Princeton General. As she walked away, Cameron filled Greg in on everything that had been happening; all the symptoms and all the tests that had been carried out before the ER had closed down.

* * *

Half an hour later, after many reassurances had been passed backwards and forwards over the glass by both parties, House and Cameron had parted ways.

While Cameron rushed about in the ER downstairs, trying to confine the two patients who were suspected of being infected from the rest of the ER, House stood in front of the whiteboard he had wheeled into his office. He stood observing the sparse list on it with a furrowed brow and growing irritation. Fever, cough and breathing difficulties could be anything. Without more information it was almost impossible to find out what his adversary was.

"Come on, come on." He muttered staring hard at the board.

"Er... are you talking to me? You're going to have to speak up if you want me to talk back." House glanced over his shoulder at Wilson, who had been leaning against the desk since House had dragged him into his office some twenty minutes before.

House's team had been sent away to a diagnostic conference somewhere on the other side of New Jersey and wouldn't be back for a week. Cuddy had sent them thinking that given their low case count recently, there wouldn't be a problem. She had tried to send House too, but her heart clearly hadn't been in the persuasion attempt, knowing before she even asked that his response would be a firm 'over my dead body.'

So House had been left alone, which he didn't particularly mind. Now was the exception. He needed someone to speculate with and the oncologist had been the perfect candidate.

"I wasn't. You're here to be a sounding board. Someone to bounce ideas off so I can say them out loud without looking insane. That job doesn't really require you to answer me."

"I didn't know you cared about looking insane. Because as your 'sounding board' I've got to tell you, if you were trying to avoid looking crazy all these years, you've failed miserably."

"Ordinarily, I wouldn't care, but I'm not going to be much use to Allison if someone suddenly decides to get me sectioned."

"Nothing sudden about it." Wilson said, sotto voce. House turned fully from the white board to stare at him.

"What was that?"

Wilson had the decency to look abashed. "Just that I don't think it would be a sudden thought for anyone. I think most people in this place have had the idea for a while."

House glared at him, unspeaking until Wilson shifted under his scrutiny. Satisfied that he had caused Wilson some discomfort, House spoke again. "Got any ideas on what this disease is? If not, shut up."

Wilson nodded and mimed zipping his mouth shut, taking time to acknowledge the pang of amusement inside his own head that House was the one telling someone to concentrate on work considering his aversion to the clinic. Both men turned their gazes back to the board.


	4. Chapter 4

_Hi everyone. Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing so far. Hope you're all enjoying it._

_Here's the next chapter, posted a lot quicker than the last one!_

_Jenny_

* * *

Total Lockdown.

Chapter 4.

It was hopeless. Well, he said it was hopeless for want of a better word. Hopeless meant there was no way out, no options. The truth was there were too many options. The whiteboard was covered in potential solutions to the problem and it would take more time than they had to go through them all.

House turned to Wilson, who had one hand covering his eyes, blocking out the light in an attempt to reduce the pain of the headache that had developed.

"Anything else?"

"I'm sure there is but I'm struggling to think at the moment. We need to narrow this down House. There are too many choices."

House looked back at the board. "You want me to wait? You want me to sit here and wait for things to get worse, possibly infecting Cameron, so we can get another clue while she gets ill?"

"That's life. Things tend to get worse before they get better." House supposed this was intended to be comforting but it missed the mark by about a mile.

"Not this time. I don't want things to get worse." House was staring hard at the jumble of words on the board, willing with all of his might for them to sort themselves into some sort of pattern, something clear he could latch on to. But the different pieces of the puzzle remained stubbornly apart, and to make thing more difficult, most of them seemed to be missing.

"Maybe you don't have a choice."

"Maybe not, but I have the choice to not sit here and _wait_ for something to happen. Need to get started on testing for some of these." He hit the board with his cane and both men watched as the board on its stand wobbled precariously before it resettled in its upright position.

"What, without a team? It'll take forever." Wilson ran his hand over his eyes again, moving down to rub across his mouth.

"Well, you're going to help me."

"Am I? How nice of me to offer." House turned to face Wilson, unspeaking. Wilson met his gaze before nodding. "I'm sorry. Of course I'll help. No patients for the rest of the day anyway."

House walked, with the aid of his cane, round the desk to settle in his chair, satisfied with the answer.

Wilson stood from his seat on the desk and settled instead in the chair facing the desk. House's eyes did not rest on him, but stayed instead on the whiteboard behind him as if by staring hard enough he could will the problem to sort itself out and the solution would appear, as if by magic, written in the black marker across the shiny surface.

"Two is better than one but we'll still struggle by ourselves. Your team isn't here..."

House's sharp eyes shot to Wilson, narrowing slightly. "What are you getting at?"

Wilson refused to be flustered by House's gaze and stared steadily back. "You know exactly what I'm getting at."

Their gazes stayed locked together for a few moments, ice blue meeting soft brown before one gave in. House slumped back in his chair, eyes moving to the ceiling and he sighed. "Alright then. Let's go."

* * *

House pulled a chair out from the square table in the cafeteria and sat down, looking at one of the other occupants of the table. Wilson sat down on the opposite side of the table, flashing a small smile at the woman at the table before turning his eyes the same way as House's, towards the young man who was now looking warily between them.

The man shifted uncomfortably, shooting a look at his dining companion who was looking at House with dislike, apparently annoyed at being ignored, before speaking to House and Wilson. "Can I help you?" His voice sounded more relaxed than he looked.

"Well, it's not going to be a social visit is it?" House responded. Wilson rolled his eyes before looking apologetically at the young brunette woman once more.

"House, either leave or tell me what you want so I can say 'no' and we-" he gestured between himself and the woman, "-can get back to eating."

"Need people. Need you to come with me."

The corners of the younger man's lips turned up slightly. "You asking for my help, House?"

House's eyes narrowed. "Not by choice, Chase. He made me." House's eyes flickered to Wilson darkly as he nodded his head towards his friend. Wilson shot him a bright, exaggerated smile which vanished as soon as it had appeared as he grew serious once more.

"Have you heard what happened to Cameron, Chase?" Wilson asked the question this time.

Chase looked slightly confused and, (House's stomach clenched in unjustified paranoia at this), extremely concerned. No matter how irrational the thought seemed, he couldn't help but think that Cameron wasn't Chase's to worry about anymore.

"I'd heard she was among the doctors trapped in the ER. I didn't know anything had happened to her specifically. Is she alright?"

Chase's dining companion, Vikki, House remembered her name was, looked rather less than impressed at Chase's tone too, but House thought that this would not the best time to bond with her, even if wanted to.

Wilson was quick to placate Chase. "She's fine. As far as we know anyway, she's fine. But we think that whatever is in there with her is contagious and it's in everyone's best interest to help her and everybody else out of there." Chase had smirked, somewhat inappropriately given the subject matter, because he knew what Wilson meant by 'everyone's best interest.' House would be impossible to deal with until he had Cameron back. House pre-Cameron had been hard enough to deal with but now he was with her, to deprive him of her would have horrible consequences for everyone around him.

"Okay. And this has what to do with me exactly?"

House pulled himself out of his dark glowering enough to answer, even if it was curt, bordering on downright rude. "Told you. Want you to run tests."

Chase looked at House for a few seconds before sagging in his chair slightly, giving in. "Fine." When neither House nor Wilson made a move he looked between them for a few seconds. "Now?"

"Now." House confirmed. Only then did he acknowledge Vikki's presence. "You, Cameron substitute."

Chase's mouth dropped open at this and Vikki looked highly affronted. "Yes, bastard?" she pulled herself together to respond, her sweet, almost kind mocking tone belied by the words themselves. Chase smiled in amusement.

House didn't falter, didn't even blink. Wilson supposed it was par for the course for him to be called that. He'd heard Cameron call him that and worse in heated moments. "You're a Pathologist, yes?"

"Yes." She warily dragged the word out.

"You're helping too."

"Excuse me?" Vikki said. "How about asking me?"

House fixed her with a look but she didn't waver. Then again, Chase reflected, she had never worked with House, so didn't know just how much of a misery he could make her life. But Vikki had a short fuse and House annoyed her like no other. He felt secure in the knowledge that, unlike Cameron, she was very unlikely to fall for House.

House relented after a few seconds. Through gritted teeth and in a whisper so quiet Chase had to strain to hear it less than a foot away he ground it out. "Please."

Chase's eyebrows shot up and Wilson choked rather spectacularly on his ill timed mouthful of coffee. Well, that was a surprise. Through coughing the liquid out of his lungs Wilson's mind thought House's willingness to ask for help was a mark of just how much Allison Cameron meant to him.

Vikki didn't flinch. Apparently she either didn't know House well enough to know how rare an occurrence politeness was for him, or she was much better at hiding her surprise than the other occupants of the table. She surveyed him for a moment before nodding.

"Alright then." She drained her own cup with more success than Wilson and stood up abruptly. House and Wilson followed suit. "No time like the present." The three of them began making their way towards the doors. Vikki noticed that Chase was still sitting motionless at the table.

"Chase, are you coming?" she called back to him.

"Why do I get the feeling that 'no' is not a feasible answer?" He asked, almost to himself.

"Shut up and come on." House told him.

"Do you want my help or not?"

"It's not a case of wanting _your_ help. It's a case of wanting _somebody_ to help and happening to trust you to hold a test tube better than a monkey." He continued walking towards the doors of the cafeteria while Wilson and Vikki waiting for Chase to catch up. When he reached the entrance to the corridor he turned back to them, watching them follow at far too slow a pace for his liking.

"Well? Come on then, my little monkeys." He carried on walking towards the ER and grinned slightly despite himself when his ears picked up Wilson's disgruntled answer.

"You're going to have to work on those pet names House."

* * *

Cameron needed a moment. She had been rushing about for hours which had doen nothing to help with her feeling hot and tired and in the current situation there was no hope for a more substantial break. There were patients to be separated, medicine to be dispensed to those whose illnesses were known and reassurances to be given to all those trapped in the ER; there was not time for a break.

Holly Byrne and Stephen Meyers, the two patients so far suspected of being infected had been separated from the rest of the people in the ER and were at the far end of the room. Everyone had been given masks that covered their mouths such as those worn in surgery and been instructed to keep them on until further notice. Cameron's was in a particularly unattractive shade of green that clashed horribly with her blouse.

Pulling aside the curtain on Holly Byrne's bed she stepped inside, feeling instantly guilty for wearing the mask. It wasn't this woman's fault she was sick and she had been cordoned off and skirted around as if the sight of her was poison.

"Hello Holly. How are you feeling?" Her voice was slightly muffled by the mask and she winced slightly, guilt renewed. Holly smiled weakly.

"No different. I'm sorry about all this."

"Don't be. It's all going to be fine. Can I just take your temperature..." Cameron stepped forwards to do so and as she did she noticed the untouched plate of food standing on the table next to the bed. She shook her head and returned to the task at hand. She looked at the display on the thermometer and sighed. "Still a bit high." She stepped back and her eyes fell on the food again.

"Don't you like pasta?"

Holly looked across at the plate. "I'm just not that hungry."

Cameron just looked at her for a moment, a crease in her forehead. "When was the last time you ate?"

Holly looked up to the ceiling as she thought. "Not since yesterday morning now I think about it. Just a slice of toast. And that didn't stay down long. I've not been hungry since then."

"Loss of appetite." Cameron remarked, almost to herself, observing Holly in the same intense way House sometimes had with his patients. It was only when Holly fidgeted uncomfortably when Cameron remembered how rude she had thought this to be when she had seen House doing it. "Sorry."

Holly nodded. "Anyway, maybe I should've told you before but I didn't think it was important. Is it important?"

"It's a clue. Another piece to the puzzle." Cameron's eyes widened as she realised who she sounded like. He was rubbing off on her. And, Cameron thought hopefully, maybe she'd gained some of his expert skill in solving medical mysteries too and it wouldn't be too much longer before she figured out what was wrong with Holly Byrne and Stephen Meyers.

"I'll be back in a bit to check on you. In the meantime, if you feel any different, better or worse, let somebody knows straight away." Cameron smiled as she left and immediately went over to Stephen's cubicle, a little way from Holly's.

A few quick questions later, Cameron had determined there was no change in Stephen's condition; he had eaten his food, he still had a fever and was still coughing periodically. He hadn't gotten any better but at least he hadn't deteriorated.

When she left the cubicle, she was greeted by Naomi who ran up to her, skidding to a halt inches from her before stepping back slightly, panting.

"House is here." She stated without preamble. "He told me to come and get you. Quickly."

"So you ran?"

"I thought it was best to just do what he asked."

Cameron grinned. "Probably wise."

Naomi opened her mouth to say something and then shut it, unsure. Cameron noticed.

"Go on." She prompted gently.

"Just... how do you... deal with him?" Naomi asked carefully.

"You mean how do I put up with him?" Cameron said knowingly. Naomi nodded. "I don't know. I love him I suppose. You can put up with a lot when you love someone." She left Naomi looking after her and walked back towards the entrance to the ER, where she knew House would be waiting for her.

She saw him before he saw her.

He was standing with his face turned towards Wilson, listening to something the oncologist was saying before spotting Cameron out of the corner of his eye and turning to face the glass, ignoring Wilson. Looking past House and Wilson, Cameron experienced a jolt of surprise when she saw Chase with Vikki Tatum, both looking rather uncomfortable.

She shifted her gaze back to House and smiled before stopping when she realised he couldn't see it through the mask anyway. His eyes were fixed on said mask and his expression was difficult to read. There was pity and sadness and fear and anger warring with each other and Cameron was finding it difficult to determine which was strongest. Finally it was Wilson who broke the silence.

"How are you Cameron?"

Her eyes snapped to Wilson, grateful to him for bringing them back to the issue.

"Fine. I'm fine, thanks. We have a new symptom though, Greg." She turned her gaze back to House.

"Yeah?" he asked distractedly, his eyes still fixed on her face.

"Yeah. Holly Byrne's lost her appetite."

"And the other guy?" House seemed to pull himself back together, his voice sounding stronger and louder suddenly.

"No, he's fine for the moment. I'm going to watch him though to see if he eats his meal later."

"Okay. Let me know either way." He smiled softly at his girlfriend on the other side of the glass. "And be sure to keep that mask on, okay?"

"I will."

"Are you sure you're alright, Cameron?" Chase's voice suddenly piped up from behind House, where he and Vikki had been standing awkwardly. When Cameron met Vikki's gaze she gave a small smile which Cameron returned with her eyes before she looked at Chase.

"I'm fine."

"You're looking a bit warm." Chase couldn't help being worried. He feared that both Cameron and House were in denial, wishing her to be healthy when she might not be. She was looking very hot and out of breath.

"The heating's broken and we can't even open the window now we've been quarantined."

Chase nodded but still looked a bit concerned. Any chance of him arguing further was stopped however, by House.

"She says she feels fine. Shut up Chase." He'd been using that phrase with alarming frequency today. Maybe it was because his mind was otherwise occupied with worrying about Cameron. Maybe the part of his brain dealing in clever metaphors had been stolen while he slept. Or maybe (and this was his personal favourite choice) everyone was just being especially moronic today.

"Stop it with the sweet-talk House. You'll make Cameron jealous." Wilson, whose brain was apparently working well enough to come up with sufficient retorts, answered for Chase.

Cameron laughed at this but stopped abruptly when a cough overtook it. When she felt another forcing its way out of her throat she yanked down the mask covering her mouth to allow more air through and covered her mouth with her hand as she coughed again. She coughed a few more times, trying to clear her throat which suddenly felt dry and itchy.

Finally when she stopped she was breathing deeply trying to regain the oxygen she had lost while coughing and her eyes were watering from the strain the violence of the attack had had on her throat and chest. She looked up into House's face on the other side and was sure his expression of shock and horror mirrored her own.


	5. Chapter 5

_Hi everyone._

_Sorry it's been a while again. I had a bit of a block on it but it seems to be okay again now, so it shouldn't be as long before the next chapter is posted with any luck. Anyway, here's the next chapter.  
_

_Have a good day!_

_Jenny._

* * *

Total Lockdown.

Chapter 5.

After a few moments of tense, shocked silence, it did not appear that neither House nor Cameron would speak any time soon. In lieu of House's leadership, it fell to Wilson to assume authority over the situation.

"Okay. If there's nothing else you need to tell us; no new developments then you should go and tell somebody what's going on and then get yourself checked in and into a bed."

The sound of Wilson's soft, considerate voice pulled House out of his horror-stricken state and he looked at Wilson with slightly unfocussed eyes before shaking his head infinitesimally and closing his gaping mouth.

"Yes... yes. Okay. Allison-" he turned his head back to look at her and she visibly swallowed as his gaze rested on her, fear clear in her eyes. "Allison," he said again, "You're not to go rushing around anymore, okay? You're ill and you've got to act like it if we're going to make you better as soon as possible."

Cameron nodded, "There's nothing else right now. I'll page you... or get someone to page you if anything else happens."

Wilson nodded. "Go get yourself into a bed, Cameron." Cameron looked at House, opened her mouth and then closed it again unsure of what to say.

House smiled softly, reassuringly at her. "Go on then. I'll talk to you soon."

"Talk to you soon." Cameron echoed. "Love you."

"Love you too." House's reply was so quiet he almost didn't speak at all but Cameron heard every word clearly.

He watched her as she turned and walked slowly to the nurse's station, watched as she leant over and spoke in hushed tones to the nurse on duty, mask firmly back in place. He watched the flash of sadness in her eyes appear and fade as the nurse unconsciously, reflexively, leant back, away from Cameron as she spoke, and continued watching as she walked over to a bed at the far end of the ward, presumably where Holly Byrne and Stephen Meyers were being contained. Only when she disappeared from view did he turn his attention back to Wilson beside him and was momentarily surprised to see his friend observing him closely.

"Are you alright House?"

House took a deep breath before replying. "I will be as soon as this is solved." He turned around fully to regard his makeshift team. Chase and Vikki were looking at him warily and he found he didn't like being the subject of such close scrutiny even a little bit.

He cleared his throat as he gathered his thoughts together. "Right. Upstairs. Looks like it's back to the drawing board or in this case, white board. We're going to go through all the options again taking into account loss of appetite and see if it becomes any clearer."

He pushed forwards and past Wilson, Chase and Vikki and headed straight for the elevator, narrowly avoiding knocking a young nurse over as he did so. The three doctors he had left stood wearing identical expressions of open-mouthed incredulity- how could he switch into business mode so easily?- before realising that he was probably expecting them to follow. As one they moved forwards, hurrying after him to avoid enraging him by being too slow.

They reached the elevator and Chase managed to put his hand in the doors just in time to prevent them closing entirely and they joined House in the elevator.

They travelled upstairs in silence, House too preoccupied with his thoughts and Wilson, Chase and Vikki too nervous to say anything that would ignite House's fury and aim it at them. House himself seemed perfectly content not to talk and didn't attempt to make any conversation in the elevator or during the short walk from the elevator to the conference room.

While House walked to the whiteboard, which had been wheeled into the conference room before he and Wilson had headed down to the cafeteria to find Chase, quickly swallowing a vicodin tablet en route, his makeshift team settled themselves around the table.

Wilson sat nearest to the board without hesitation and immediately focussed his attention on the board, his lips moving slightly as his brain began to sift through the words.

Chase sat on the opposite side of the table, feeling an uncomfortable sense of déjà vu at being back in that room, which held some good memories but many more bad.

Vikki, on the other hand, was clearly out of her depth and hovered by the door, not sure of where to sit or what she was expected to do. She fidgeted on the spot until Chase looked up at her and pulled out the chair next to him, wisely avoiding choosing the chair that Cameron used to sit in, and gestured for her to sit before House turned around and asked her what she was doing.

Vikki sat down gratefully and both she and Chase turned their attention to the board in silence. House was standing next to it, having already added loss of appetite to the list, twirling his marker between his fingers absent-mindedly and looking closely at the board. He breathed in, a deep shuddering breath that caused his whole body to shake a little before turning to look at the three doctors around the table.

"Right then. Go."

* * *

It felt unnatural to her, to be sitting in a bed listening to nurses rush by just past the curtains hiding her view of the rest of the ward, hearing doctors interrogate patients, without being one of the ones doing the questioning. Allison Cameron never was one to sit back and let others do the work and it felt supremely uncomfortable to be doing so now, even though intellectually she knew she had no choice. She was ill and she had to stay away from the other patients and doctors not infected. She had already placed them all in danger; who could tell when she had contracted the disease? She had been around Holly Byrne for at least an hour before they had noticed anything serious was amiss.

At the thought of the young woman, Cameron's gaze drifted towards the fabric partition between Holly's bed and her own and found it had been drawn back slightly without her noticing. Holly, sitting up on her bed, was peering through the small gap and the look of guilt on her face caused a wave of sympathy to hit Cameron and she smiled at Holly reassuringly.

"How are you feeling?" Cameron asked Holly out of a mixture of eagerness to break the slightly uncomfortable silence and reluctance to give up playing the caring doctor. Her natural compassion meant it was a role she had held since she was a young girl and she wasn't sure how to act any other way.

Holly smiled rather unsteadily and brushed her hand over her black hair. Cameron suspected this was a nervous habit as the tidy curls needed no neatening. "I'm okay. How about you? How do you feel?"

Cameron shrugged and tilted her head towards the curtain listening to the noise beyond. She searched for the right word before carefully replying. "Redundant. I feel redundant. It's strange not being about to help."

Holly looked down and began to pick at the blanket underneath her with one hand while the other smoothed her hair once more. She opened her mouth and then closed it again as she struggled with the appropriate response and Cameron felt guilty for not placing the girl at ease. She sat in silence watching Holly carefully, scanning automatically for any changes in demeanour or appearance that could constitute a symptom; something that could help Greg.

Eventually Holly found her voice again. "I'm sorry." Her voice was quiet and so timid that Cameron's heart broke a little for her.

Immediately she began to console her. "Don't be. Not your fault. It's no-one's fault." She registered the worry on the woman's thin face which was still bowed towards the blanket. "Everything's going to be alright you know." She tried to inject her tone with confidence but had the disconcerting feeling that it took on an edge of desperation instead.

"How do you know?"

Cameron smiled at her and replied in a voice laced with tender affection. "The best doctor in the hospital is working on it and I'm sure he'll figure it out soon."

Holly's head jerked up, finally tearing her eyes from the itchy fibre of the blanket to meet Cameron's eyes and grinned slyly, instantly noting Cameron's emotion-filled voice. "The best doctor in the hospital, yeah?"

Cameron flushed. "Yeah, he is."

"Who is he?"

"His name's Doctor House. He's Head of Diagnostics upstairs."

"Can I infer from your voice and that 'oh-he's-so-brilliant' look in your eyes that he's _your_ Doctor House?"

Cameron's face flushed but, despite their predicament, she couldn't stop the smile spreading across her face. She nodded and Holly's grin widened. She laughed and Cameron's smile increased but they sobered when the happy laugh turned into a dry cough. Holly sighed.

"Don't worry. Greg will figure it out soon." Cameron said again, almost to herself.

"Greg?"

"That's his name. Greg House."

"So how did you meet him?"

Cameron opened her mouth but hesitated and sensing this Holly went on. "Please. I need something happy to distract me."

"I worked for him. He was my boss for three years."

Holly looked taken aback and blinked in surprise. "Well you know what they say about power. But are bosses allowed to go out with their employees? Wouldn't it make it a bit awkward if you had an argument about whose turn it was to get the milk?"

"We didn't start dating until recently. About three months ago. I wasn't working for him anymore. I did try when I was working for him, I tried to start something up but he wasn't... it was a bad idea. It was stilted and I tried to make him be something he wasn't. But it's better this way. I know him better and he knows me and it's just... it's better that's all."

Holly nodded sagely. "Complicated. I get it. I've had my share of complicated."

"It was complicated. I'm kind of glad to be honest that it didn't work out back then. We know each other so much better now."

"Good. Well, you seem happy."

Cameron considered this. At that precise moment in time she was scared, feeling helpless and useless, and more than a little uncomfortable in the heat. She felt ill and her throat was hurting from trying to repress the constant urge to cough. Even through all of this though, the thought of Greg upstairs made a warm rush of joy fill her chest.

An image, a vivid memory burst into life in her mind and shocked her with its clarity. It was from the night of the charity casino party in the hospital when he had turned from the familiar whiteboard listing the symptoms of both the six year old Ian and the seventy-three year old Ester.

In her mind she saw his mouth drop open again and heard the little breathless exhalation of surprise when he saw her in the flattering crimson gown, hair loose and draped over her pale shoulders. He had sucked his lips into his mouth and shook his head, as though to clear hazy vision and uttered those immortal words, "What were we talking about?"

Cameron smiled unconsciously at the memory. That was the moment she allowed herself to resurrect the idea that he might feel something for her, her eager mind envisioning the future when she hoped his feelings for her would transcend the physical attraction that had always existed between them. That night was the night, in her mind, when the lead up to their relationship had definitely begun. Cameron abruptly noticed Holly was waiting for an answer, curiously eyeing the grin that had suddenly and inexplicably spread over her face.

"Sorry, just thinking. Yeah. We are. Well, I am and I think he is. He isn't complaining anyway and, trust me, he wouldn't keep quiet if there was something wrong."

Holly laughed. "With any luck, you'll see him again soon. If he's as good as you clearly think he is then he'll have it figured out soon."

"In no time at all." Cameron replied in a comforting tone but even as she spoke a dubious whisper started in the back of her mind. She wasn't going to tell Holly that, in her experience, with House's cases, things tended to get worse before they got better.


	6. Chapter 6

_Hi everyone. _

_Sorry it's been a while but thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing this so far. I appreciate it._

_Jenny :)_

* * *

Total Lockdown.

Chapter 6.

"You see the problem with these things is that they always make sense in retrospect." House's eyes stayed glued to the board as he addressed Wilson, Chase and Vikki.

"Problem? That's not a good thing?" Vikki sounded confused and more than a little bit tired.

"Not always and not in this case. Sometimes retrospect is bad. Retrospect means it's over. It means you've lost." House sighed and rubbed the hand not holding his cane over his forehead.

"We're not losing House." Wilson, taking up his role as the perpetual comforter with relish, chimed in. If he thought it would be a wise idea he would have stood up and put his hand on House's shoulder. As it was, given House's exceptionally dark mood, he thought it would be better to stay put.

"We're always losing. Everyone's losing until they win."

"Well that makes sense. Thanks for that little nugget of wisdom. Is optimism one of the qualities Cameron likes in you?" Chase's worry and frustration was making him edgy and sarcastic and House threw him a withering look.

"And you? What did she see in you? Except, of course, pretty hair products she could borrow."

Chase fixed him with an angry glare, missing the way Vikki's eyes had moved to the top of his head and were closely perusing his head apparently trying to discern what kind of things he used on his hair. Chase opened his mouth to respond, most likely with a scathing comment intended to match House's but which would not quite meet House's standards, but did not get a chance to say anything as he was cut off before he had even started.

"This isn't helping!" Wilson all but yelled, injecting his voice with as much authority as possible before the argument escalated into dangerous territory not conducive to helping Cameron and everyone else in the ER.

Chase turned his face away instantly, breathing deeply while House held his eyes position a bit longer, staring at Chase's pale cheek for a few seconds before carrying on as if there were no interlude.

"So what do we have?" Without waiting for an answer, he turned to the board and rattling off a few of the many things listed. "TB, influenza, SARS, Pertussis..."

"Please tell me you're not going to read them all out." Chase said tiredly. "We can read and we've been over and over all of them."

House ignored him. "Pulmonary Fibrosis-"

"Unlikely. It's not contagious and they'd have to all be genetically predisposed to it. An environmental trigger would've been involved and it's too much of a co-incidence for it to hit Holly Byrne, Stephen Myers _and_ Cameron almost simultaneously." Chase spoke again.

"Yes, yes, yes, it's unlikely but not impossible. Especially with the vents being broken the air is still and dust could trigger it. It'd take time but it could be building up for years and the symptoms just showing up now."

"Come on, House. At almost exactly the same time, three people who have never met each other before reach the stage at which pulmonary fibrosis starts to show reacting to an unknown environmental stimulus?"

"...It's possible."

Chase just raised an eyebrow.

"You worked here long enough to know that it's possible."

Still no reply.

"Well, I say we're not discounting it. I'm not taking any chances and as my decision is the only one that matters you can all stop looking at me like that."

The others seemed to accept that there was no point in arguing and were silent for a few seconds, just looking intently at the crowded board before Wilson sighed theatrically.

"We haven't narrowed it down enough yet. It could be something as serious as TB or as mild as the flu, in which case we just have to wait."

"If you suggest waiting for Allison to get sicker one more time..."

"She could get better." Wilson pointed out. "If it's the flu it'll pass."

"She could get worse. If it's TB it might not."

Wilson nodded, accepting this. "Sorry. I'm just trying to think of the best case scenario."

"I know. But, unpleasant as it is, the worst case scenario is the one we should to be concentrating on. We all know how the world likes to bite people in the ass."

Wilson, Chase and Vikki remained silent. Vikki's eyes were moving rapidly over the board, apparently impervious to the brief argument between Chase and House and Wilson's subsequent peace-keeping.

"So what do we need?" She asked suddenly, not leaving any room for responses before answering her own question. "Mantoux test for TB, though the results won't be back for 48 hours so it's probably better to rule out everything else first..."

"We can't get into the ER, but they have the equipment in there to do that, so we could ask Cameron..." Chase started before being cut off.

"No. Cameron's ill so she's not doing anything that could be classed as even vaguely stressful or difficult."

"Okay, so we'll get another doctor in the ER to do it. Don't make difficulties. So if we get someone in the ER to do the injection for the Mantoux test. What else... well, if it's the flu we'll see some improvement very soon so we can ignore that..."

House took control. "Right, TB test sorted out, we'll start with the most likely. I'll go down to the ER and get a history from the girl who first showed symptoms... Molly? No, Holly Byrne wasn't it?"

Wilson nodded, smiling slightly to himself as he knew perfectly well that House wouldn't be half as keen to take a patient's history were that patient not in the same vicinity as Cameron. He also knew that this case had a very personal importance to House, for obvious reasons, and that House had committed every detail of the case so far to memory, so was wholly aware of Holly Byrne's name. "That's right."

"Okay. Chase, you go to the lab and test the blood taken from taken from Stephen Meyers and Holly Byrne this morning for antibodies against pertussis." He pointed towards Chase, who nodded along with his ex-boss' words, with the bottom end of his cane as he spoke before making the smooth transition to pointing at Vikki.

"Doctor Tatum, you go with him and do as many tests as you can with the remaining blood. Cover the most likely of these-" he tapped his cane on the board before continuing, "-first and then do whatever you can think of with the rest. Don't waste it though; we can't get any more out. One test per disease." Vikki, writing these instructions down on the paper in front of her, head bowed, made a soft noise in the back of her throat to indicate she had listened and understood. Turning to Wilson, hooking the end of his cane over the top of the board as he did so, he proceeded to give Wilson his instructions.

"Wilson, go with them too and I want you to test for pulmonary fibrosis. According to his notes, Stephen Meyers had an X- Ray for suspected pneumonia last year so have a look at that. Look for any problems at all but especially for the early signs of pulmonary fibrosis, the doctors last year could have missed it if they weren't looking."

Even before House had finished speaking the three other occupants of the room were gathering themselves together in a flurry of movement, jotting down their individual tasks and pushing their chair out from the table, picking up their papers as they did so. House, inwardly grateful at their haste, picked his cane up from where it was hanging from the top of the whiteboard and started walking towards the door, closely followed by the other three.

* * *

House tapped impatiently on the glass with the handle of his cane, a steady, rhythmic beat that attracted more than a few irritated stares from the restless patients on the other side of the glass. He ignored them and carried on tapping until the nurse he spoke to before, Naomi according to her name badge, hurried over to him.

"Hello Doctor House. Could you stop that?" She gestured to the spot where the wooden stick was hitting the glass. "It's not helping." House narrowed his eyes slightly and was gratified when she leant backwards a bit. He suspected she wouldn't be half as brave without the pane of glass separating them.

"Allison?" His one word question was met with a softened expression and he almost growled in irritation. He didn't want this woman's sympathy, he wanted his Allison to be alright and every second Naomi wasted feeling sorry for him was a valuable second he could spend working on the case.

"How is she?"

"Her cough's gotten worse and her temperature has risen. There doesn't seem to be any change in her or in Miss Byrne or Mr Meyers."

House thought for a moment, unsure whether to be pleased that there had been no change for the worse or disappointed that they had nothing more to add to the list of symptoms. He opted for the first one and was glad that Cameron was not worse until the tests were at least underway, especially as the TB test would take so long. Speaking of which...

"I'm going to need you to perform a Mantoux test on one of the patients. Preferably Holly Byrne as she's been ill the longest."

"No problem. But you know it'll be..."

"At least two days. Yes, I know. It's a precaution. Hopefully another test will come back positive and we won't need the TB test."

"Alright then. I'll go and do that now."

"I'm going to wait here. You go and tell Cameron to take histories for Holly Byrne and Stephen Meyers. She knows what to ask. Tell her to write it down and then bring it back to me. Then you'll hold it up to the glass and I can read it."

Naomi walked away and House rested his shoulder against the glass, staring through it after the young nurse until she disappeared and then turned his gaze to the number of patients huddled at the nearest end of the ward, away from the contagious people.

Many of them were clutching their masks tightly to their face, determined not to breathe any air that had not passed through the mask and were looking around fearfully. Some were staring at him rather rudely, as though he'd committed a crime equal to attacking their mother by tapping on the glass to gain attention. He met the eyes of one particularly impertinent young boy until he grew uncomfortable and looked away, leaving House smirking despite himself at having won the juvenile staring contest.

When he looked away, he was surprised to see Allison, followed by Naomi, approaching the glass. He raised his eyebrows as he looked her up and down before vocalising the question contained in his eyes.

"Why aren't you in bed? And why are you still in those clothes? You should change into some hospital robes." As House asked, Naomi turned and walked away, leaving them alone.

"Hello Greg. I will change in a bit. I was busy. And I was in bed until you came down here."

He smiled before something in her answer registered fully. "Busy? Doing what? You were supposed to be resting."

"I knew you'd come down here. I've got their histories ready for you."

House grinned at this. "Good. That's great, Allison." She smiled back at him and pressed the first sheet, Holly Byrne's history, up against the glass.

"Only child, no partner or children, journalist for the travel section of a newspaper, you can get all her medical details on file, she was here about a year ago for a check up..." Cameron carried on relaying all the information while House scanned the paper, dedicating everything she had written, loopy G's and all, to his memory.

Once House was confident he would be able to remember the main points of the history until he got back upstairs and wrote them down, Cameron held up the next paper and pressed it flat against the glass. He could see the shape of her hand through the thin paper as the sun shone through it and felt another wave of sadness hit him.

He quickly shook himself back to attention and scanned the history for Stephen Meyers whilst Cameron's gentle voice talked over the main point, worryingly punctuated now and then by little coughs.

"Stephen Meyers, 32, lives with his girlfriend. He has a son from a previous marriage but only sees him twice a year. His girlfriend is in Missouri visiting her family but she has been contacted and is taking a flight back. His ex wife is keeping his son away for his safety but has been receiving updates. He's a chef and works in a restaurant a couple of miles from here."

She remained silent while House focussed on the paper until he finally looked up at her. She smiled at him and he returned it.

"How are you? Are you alright?" He asked her softly, eyes intently focusing on hers.

"I'm okay. No worse anyway." She sighed and shrugged her shoulders a little. He was still staring at her unblinkingly and she found the only way to cope with the intensity was to look away, so she moved her gaze down to the floor. "Have you any idea on what it might be?"

"Oh, we have a lot of ideas, don't worry. It's going to be fine."

"So from the symptoms it could be... TB, Whooping cough..."

"Or just the flu." House cut her off, not being able to bear hearing her speculate on what potentially deadly disease her body might be fighting.

She offered him a smile, grateful for his attempt at comfort but not believing he was optimistic for a moment. "You don't believe that."

"Lupus?" House suggested, a slightly joking tone creeping through the sadness.

Cameron smiled in appreciation and laughed weakly. "It's not lupus."

"I know." There was a pause. "I'm trying Allison. You know I am."

"Yes, I know, Greg. Thanks."

"It'll be okay." Cameron smiled but didn't answer. They simply looked at each other in silence for a moment before House looked away, unable to cope with the highly emotionally charged moment only three months into the first serious relationship he'd had in years, and cleared his throat, reverting to business mode.

"Okay, thanks. I'll write those histories down when I go upstairs. Until then, I want you to get back into bed and relax. Remember to page me or Wilson if anything changes with you or the other two." He looked straight into her eyes. "I love you."

"Love you too, Greg."

He smiled and fixed her with a faux stern look which was somewhat diminished by the gentle look in his eyes. "Get back into bed now."

She laughed again. "Okay. See you later."

"Bye."

House watched her walk back down the ward for a few seconds before turning to walk towards the lab, eager to see what results, if any, Chase, Wilson and Vikki Tatum had found.


	7. Chapter 7

_Hi everyone!_

_Here's the next chapter. Up a bit faster than the last one too. I was in a writing frame of mind today so I sat down in front of series one of House to keep me focussed on this._

_Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing. Have a nice day.  
_

_Jenny. _

* * *

Total Lockdown.

Chapter 7.

Chase stood close behind Vikki's back, leaning over her shoulder to see what she was doing in a way that was highly irritating to her whilst simultaneously causing goosebumps to spread across her neck when his warm breath came into contact with her skin.

"So?" He asked, sounding resigned, as though he already knew the answer which, she reminded herself, he probably did, hanging over her shoulder as he was.

"Nope. Nothing. Wilson?" She called over to where Wilson was standing by the glass wall, holding up Stephen Meyer's year-old x-ray to the light.

"I'm looking now." His forehead was creased as his eyes frantically searched for something, _anything_, which could give them the smallest inkling about what was happening in the ER. He lowered it after a few seconds with a sigh and collapsed onto the nearest stool.

"Okay, so what do we tell House?" Chase asked, looking between Vikki and Wilson with growing apprehension.

"You could always declare your undying devotion for me from the hospital roof. I wouldn't mind. I'll make the banners." House announced his arrival at the door and looked between the three doctors in the room. "I've got the histories, we'll discuss that back upstairs, tell me what you guys have got."

Wilson spoke first, after a short tense silence during which he, Chase and Vikki shot little looks at each other, determined to not be the first one to tell House that they had nothing, and House glared at them all, informing them with his eyes that if somebody didn't speak soon he would not be held responsible for their heads coming into sharp contact with his cane.

"No sign of pulmonary fibrosis on Stephen Meyer's x-ray. I can't see any other problems that would fit the symptoms either. The man's never smoked a day in his life, his lung are as healthy as any I've seen."

"But as you spend all day looking at x-rays riddled with cancer that's not really saying a lot. Carry on." House interjected eyes fixed on the floor in front of him as his brain absorbed all the information.

Wilson allowed himself a few indulgent seconds for aiming a withering glance (which, probably luckily, House missed as he was too busy contemplating the third tile on the left from the door) at his friend before continuing.

"As it turns out, Cameron had an x-ray about eighteen months ago as well. According to her notes she fell down the stairs and thought she'd fractured a couple of her ribs. She hadn't and her lungs show none of the early signs of pulmonary fibrosis that would have been present at the time if that was the problem now."

"Got it. Not pulmonary fibrosis. Chase? Pertussis?"

"No antibodies for the pertussis toxin in the blood. It's not pertussis."

"Good. This is good."

"Is it?" Wilson asked sceptically. "How exactly, in your admittedly twisted mind, is it good that our options are being ruled out?"

"Because we're narrowing it down. Have you got anything?" House directed the last question at Vikki, who was fiddling with the focus on the microscope in front of her nervously.

"Still waiting on a couple of things." She nodded towards a line of test tubes and petri dishes with various chemicals and dyes mixed in. "I did one for the flu just to be sure it wasn't that easy. I was hoping it would be but..."

"No?"

"No. It's not the flu."

House sighed and looked up towards the ceiling briefly, before finally looking at the other three doctors in the room.

"Okay then. Back upstairs then where I can write those histories up on the whiteboard and we can cross out some of the possibilities. We'll come and check those last few tests as soon as they're done. TB test is being taken care of, just in case. Wilson..." House broke off when an urgent beeping from his hip drew his attention. He dropped his cane, allowing it to clatter unceremoniously to the floor as one hand drew up his one side of his jacket so the other could reach his pager more quickly.

He pulled the screen up to eye level, leaning heavily on the counter behind him in the absence of his cane and read the short message. Wilson stood from the stool and bent to retrieve House's cane from its spot lying on the cold tiles. House took it from him without a word and put the pager back.

"House? What is it?" Chase enquired anxiously after taking in, at a glance, the dark look on House's face.

"Upstairs. Now." House demanded and moved out of the room ahead of the others, not even pausing to see if they would follow.

* * *

House dropped the black marker onto the conference room table and stepped back from the board.

"So... not flu, not pulmonary fibrosis, not pertussis, TB's sat on the bench with several others in test tubes downstairs, what's next to step up to the plate?"

"And, in a surprise twist to the game...?" Wilson spoke from his position in the opposite side of the table.

"New symptom! Aren't we lucky?" Contrary to his remark, House's voice held no glee whatsoever at this development.

"Unusual muscle stiffness." Vikki read off the board. "How do they know it's unusual?"

"At first only Stephen Meyers was complaining of it in his leg, but after Holly Byrne mentioned it in passing it seemed like it was related to the illness."

"Cameron?"

"Her too. In her neck."

"Couldn't it be psychological?" Chase asked hopefully. "Holly and Allison overheard Stephen Meyers complaining of it and on a subconscious level they started feeling muscle pain too?"

"Sorry Sigmund Freud. Not possible. Neither Holly nor Allison were told of Mr Meyer's complaint until after they themselves started feeling the stiffness in their muscles too. Down in the ER they decided that would be better to prevent that sort of psychological reaction."

"Right. So the list reads: high temperature, dry cough, loss of appetite, unusual stiffness in muscles and breathing difficulties." Wilson left a small pause to allow this to register in everyone's brains before continuing, "At least we're narrowing it down. That's good."

"And muscle stiffness is not a symptom of TB so we might be able to rule that out."

"Might?" Vikki asked, confused as to House's wording.

"Unless the muscle stiffness is due to being lying still in a hospital bed for hours."

Wilson groaned. "So it might not be a symptom at all."

"We'll know soon enough. I told the ER to try and get Stephen Meyers walking around for a while. Just around his cubicle. See if his leg stiffness goes away with a little movement."

"Right. So we might have a new symptom, we might not. It might be TB, it might not. It might be any of the other diseases we are currently testing for and it might not. We're making excellent progress." Chase moaned in frustration and Vikki sighed heavily at his stark statement.

"We've narrowed it down. That's progress. Anyway, on to the histories." House stepped up to the whiteboard and spun it around, and it only just missed his foot as it swung around. The reverse side of the board was blank and House snatched up the marker held out by Chase. He swiftly drew two vertical lines down the board, splitting it into three and wrote Holly's, Stephen's and Cameron's names at the head of each column.

"Holly Byrne... lives alone... no partner... journalist..." House muttered the various details of the history Cameron had gathered as he listed them and the other three stayed silent as he moved onto Stephen Meyers. Cameron's he was already aware of as he had been her previously been her employer and had become privy to her entire medical history over the course of her employment due to his natural curiosity and reluctance to let any quirk of her behaviour and mannerisms go. Thus, he had carefully cultivated, over the course of three years, a detailed knowledge of Cameron's history.

House smirked as it occurred to him that Cameron must have known this. That was why she hadn't bothered to give him her history.

"We should focus on Holly Byrne first. She was the first to show symptoms. This... whatever it is... is hard to catch. Only two other people in the entire ER caught it. Cameron was in fairly close contact as she was treating her. What about Stephen Meyers?"

Vikki flicked quickly through the papers in front of her, searching for a specific one. "ER says he was sat next to her in the waiting room."

"There we go then. Close proximity once again. Good news is, if you have to be close to someone for an extended period of time and she lives alone, chances are she's neither given it to someone else or caught it off someone. So, if we assume she contracted it directly from the source... what's the source?"

"Environmental. Has to be environmental; we've ruled out genetic predisposition to a condition such as pulmonary fibrosis." Chase spoke again.

"So viral or bacterial..." House jotted down each option with a question mark after each one.

"Has she been out of the country recently or is it definitely a local source?" Wilson asked and House turned to face him.

"Of course she's..." he broke off as he glanced at the board once again and realised he'd forgotten to write something Cameron had told him down. "Sorry. My mistake." He quickly added something to Holly Byrne's history list. "As I was saying: she's a travel journalist. Of course she's been out of the country. We can't rule anything out."

"Where out of the country?"

"All over the place. In the last three months... Thailand, Russia, Poland, China, New Zealand. If you want me to go back further the list gets longer."

"Great. So basically it could be any disease, from anywhere."

"Not any disease. Don't be so morbid. You forget, we've ruled out pulmonary fibrosis and the flu and if the stiffness is a symptom, then it's not TB either."

After a few more minutes of discussion, Vikki looked down at her watch. "A few of the tests should be ready by now. I'll go down and check."

House nodded at her and she left the room. He then turned to address Chase and Wilson. "And we will go down to the ER."

Chase looked confused. "Why?"

"To see if the stiffness is a symptom." With that he followed the path Vikki had taken out of the office, leaving Wilson and Chase to stand up and scramble after him.

* * *

"Hi." Cameron reached the glass and her eyes smiled up at House on the other side. The diagnostician, for his part, couldn't help but notice the slightly awkward way she held her head because of, he assumed, the stiffness in her neck.

"Hi. Neck no better?" He gestured with his free hand but did not remove his eyes from her face.

"No. Neither is Stephen's leg."

"So it is a symptom." House considered this for a moment before deciding to go with his gut reaction. He inhaled deeply. "Oh good."

Cameron lifted an eyebrow delicately and placed one hand on her hip in that beguiling way of hers. "Good?"

Preoccupied by her stance it took House a moment or two to sufficiently gather his thoughts to respond. "I mean..." He groped uselessly with the words which refused to come and promptly gave up, gesturing impatiently with his hand in that highly distracting way of _his_. "You know what I mean. It's not TB. Means we won't need to wait two days for the Mantoux test to tell us what we already know."

She looked down at her forearm. House couldn't see from where he was stood but he guessed she was looking at the injection site. She fingered it carefully, tracing around it while he watched.

"Good. I was hoping it wasn't TB." She sounded distracted, as though her mind was miles away. She looked back up, letting her arm fall to her side. "So what else could it be? Whooping cough?"

"Test for pertussis came back negative." Chase said from behind House and Wilson cleared his throat.

"Not pulmonary fibrosis either." Wilson said and Cameron's eyes widened.

"Pulmonary fibrosis? That seems unlikely. You're really not leaving anything to chance are you?"

"No." House said quickly.

"Seems unlike you." She said softly and smiled when he met her eyes.

He made a noncommittal noise in the back of his throat and shifted on the spot. "What? I don't take chances with... okay I do but not too many. Not when it's serious. And not now."

Cameron nodded. "Noted and appreciated." Even behind the mask she wore, House could see Cameron's grin and responded in kind but their happy moment was disrupted by her violent cough.

He looked around him and then back at Cameron and was about to say something else to her when he was interrupted before he could even start when Vikki walked up behind Chase and Wilson, smiling tentatively at Cameron and then biting her lip when House turned to look at her.


	8. Chapter 8

_Hi everyone._

_Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing. I appreciate it. Here's the next chapter, hope you like it._

_Jenny._

* * *

Total Lockdown.

Chapter 8.

"How are you?" Vikki directed the question, and her stare, at Cameron who nodded wordlessly.

"Skip the pleasantries. What you got for us?" House asked her impatiently.

Vikki swallowed. It was obvious she had planned to prevaricate as long as possible, but with House's icy blue eyes boring into her own, it was not a viable option. She breathed deeply before answering. "It's messed up. Tests have been contaminated. They're useless."

"What?" House's voice had lowered dangerously and Cameron blanched behind the glass.

"I don't know how. I got to the lab and..." She trailed off and shook her head, as though trying to deny the truth of the situation. "Someone's been working too close to them. I don't know who as nobody was there when I went in but the tests are now inconclusive. The point is, we can't get any decent results from them."

House made a loud, angry grunt of frustration and slammed his cane against the ER wall, the force of the blow causing Cameron to blink and step back. Wilson was staring at Vikki, mouth open, manners forgotten and Chase was running a hand through his hair, ruining the half hour of careful styling he had put into it that very morning.

Cameron eyed House warily even as she spoke to Vikki. "So none of the tests...?"

"A few of the minor ones were okay. But they were for things we didn't think were likely anyway. Precautions, really."

"Which ones were ruined?" Wilson spoke this time, as Cameron's attention was demanded by an angry looking House, whose breathing rate had sped up and he was tapping his cane rhythmically, and with increasing ferocity, against the floor.

As Vikki listed five or six tests that needed redoing, it became obvious that House was not paying the slightest bit of attention. For one, he was mumbling to himself under his breath and for another, he had stormed over to the reception desk, cutting Vikki off mid sentence, and was loudly commanding the terrified receptionist to bring Cuddy to him. Immediately.

House glared at the frightened young man as he picked up the phone and dialled Cuddy's direct line. Chase, Wilson, Cameron and Vikki could see, but could not hear, the man speak into the phone, just a few words before the receiver was tugged sharply from his unprepared grasp and House was angrily shouting into the mouthpiece, drawing the attention of every human within the vicinity.

The first few sentences were too difficult to hear, but once House had gained some attention and the general noise level had died down so people could eavesdrop, it was easier to hear his furious words.

"I don't _care_ about the damn procedures. It's too late for being cautious..." He left a small gap, too small for Cuddy to have fully completed her undoubtedly heated reply before he was screaming his rage at her once more. With no particular direction to aim his ire in, he was reduced to yelling it at the first convenient person. All the stress and frustration of the day was pouring out and nobody was brave, or stupid, enough to stop him.

For those with experience in such situations, they were aware that Lisa Cuddy was more than capable of defending herself from House's anger, so often was it fired at her that she was considered a veteran. For those inexperienced, it was none of their business and they had better things to do than risk disembowelment for a cause which did not concern them.

"I'm really not calling for permission; I'm just informing you of what I am _going_ to do so you can file the relevant paperwork, call a two hundred buck an hour lawyer, or complain about me to a board of trustees. God forbid you perform anything _actually _medicinal or do any serious work into relieving the quarantine." With that, House dropped the phone and turned to stalk back towards the ER and four open mouthed doctors.

Wilson, knowing his friend as he did, found it all too easy to predict his next actions. He raced over to an abandoned cart, laden with various standard (but relatively minor) pieces of equipment used in a hospital such as cotton swabs and suture kits. He rifled quickly through layers of gauze cloth to find what he was looking for and dashed back, mask in hand, to where Chase and Vikki stood, flanking a staring Cameron behind the glass.

House reached them not two seconds later and made to push the doors the ER open. He didn't even seem to notice the hygienic mask Wilson proffered, so the oncologist pushed it into the outstretched hand. He recognised that is was futile to try and stop House when he had made up his mind, but that didn't mean he couldn't try to keep him safe and healthy while he pulled off his latest foolhardy scheme. Cameron, finally realising what was about to happen began shaking her head anxiously and opened and closed her mouth as she searched for words that sounded urgent enough to persuade him to stop. If he opened the doors, they risked the disease getting out.

House took the mask wordlessly, ignoring Cameron's frantic looks and voiceless objections as he took a moment to put the mask on. Wilson, Chase and Vikki drew back as one, ushering others passing by as far from the doors as possible as they did so.

House kindly spared a glance over his shoulder to ensure others were well back before proceeding. He stepped towards the door and Cameron on the other side, stepped back simultaneously, as though they were engaged in a dance only they could hear the music to. The way they were focussing purely on each other, Wilson thought they might as well have been alone. House's hand made contact with the door, pushing it open a little when he heard a shout from behind him.

Cuddy had emerged from her office, and was shouting his name and moving as fast as she could across the foyer. Wilson tried to hold onto her arm, to hold her back from potential harm but she shook him off and barrelled forwards, her characteristic stubborn, determined expression prominent on her face.

House quickly reached out for the door and attempted to push it open, only to find he was unable to do so. Cameron had hurled her whole weight against the inside of the door and was holding it shut with all of her might. Her wide blue eyes pleaded with him silently not to try and push harder. As he has told her previously, he was twice her size, and they both knew that if he tried, he could easily push through the doors despite Cameron's hindrance. Before he could do anything, either push forwards or move back, a small feminine hand was on his arm, pulling him back none too gently.

"What the hell are you doing? House, you can't... procedures are there for a reason!" The shrill voice of Lisa Cuddy shouted much too loudly for one her size.

"Procedures have accomplished absolutely nothing all day. Vents any closer to being fixed?"

"No, but that's a minor issue. The ER is quarantined House! _Quarantined! _You can't go in."

"And they can't come out. I know what quarantined means. We done with the vocabulary lesson for today? I mean, I love it but maybe this isn't the best time."

Cuddy took a deep breath, visibly calming herself to keep from attempting to throttle the often insufferable, always brilliant man in front of her.

"Do you mind explaining, in as simple a way as you can manage, what you think you're doing?"

"I _was_ going to go and retrieve some blood for more tests so I could do my _job_. But, I seem to have a Dean of Medicine clinging onto my arm-" he glanced pointedly down at where Cuddy's pale hand was gripping his forearm and her nails were digging into her shirt. She shook her head in exasperation but released him nonetheless.

He waited until she stepped back from him before he continued. "-And an immunologist blocking my way." He looked across to Cameron, who was still holding herself against the doors steadfastly. She met his stare steadily but did not back down, instead holding eye contact and stubbornly refused to move from the door.

"If you come in here, you won't be able to leave." Cameron told him through the glass. He looked at her seriously and she smiled softly. "What good will you be to me then?" She joked.

He grinned at her and retreated, pulling back from the door in a clear demonstration of surrender. She regarded him for a moment before deciding to trust him, relaxing her grip on the door, but still standing close to it, in case she needed to hurl herself against it once more.

"What do we do now then?" It was Cuddy who broke the brief silence, sounding extremely relieved to have avoided a House-related crisis. The hospital already had too many of those occurring much too regularly.

House stayed silent, staring at the floor in front of him, his eyes finally having left Cameron's. She was still staring at him, lost in her thoughts too. Chase shuffled on the spot, glancing nervously at Vikki, who was chewing her lip, brow furrowed as she concentrated. Wilson alone seemed able to move. He roamed restlessly about the floor, his eyes darting around as his able mind desperately tried to come up with a solution.

Chase began muttering to himself under his breath but abruptly stopped when House turned his head to stare at him. Wilson cleared his throat.

"What have we got? Environmental trigger, Miss Byrne caught it first, she lives alone, she travels so it could be from anywhere..." He broke off suddenly in shock as House's head shot up, his eyes immediately finding Cameron's own surprised ones.

"She's been to China?" he asked her quickly.

Cameron seemed surprised by the question, unsure if she'd heard him correctly, she enquired, "What?"

House rolled his eyes and asked again, this time with a bite of impatience in his voice. "China. You said she'd been to China. When?"

"Yes, she said she had. Er... I'm not sure when. Just... wait there. I'll be back. Just a minute." She turned and almost ran down the ward. House and the others stood in silence for a few seconds, House waiting for Cameron's return and the others waiting for House's explanation, which did not seem likely to come without prompting.

"House?" Wilson reminded him of their presence, something which he seemed to have forgotten in the last minute or so as his mind raced to a potential solution.

House faced Cuddy, Chase, Vikki and Wilson's questioning looks with his usual arrogant smirk, betraying none of his uncertainty.

"Yes, Wilson?"

Chase made a sound of frustration in his throat at House's obstinate refusal to give anything away.

"China?"

"Yes. It's a country in Asia, near India and Mongolia. The capital is Beijing and it has the biggest population in the world."

"Enough of the geography lesson, House. Didn't you just say we didn't have time for English lessons?" Cuddy asked, annoyed at his blatant avoidance.

"I said vocabulary and that was when you were giving the lecture."

"Vocabulary, English, doesn't matter so don't nit-pick. Just tell us what's going on."

"Ah, but then how would you learn? Besides, I'm not sure."

House seemed loath to admit this seed of doubt and so rare an occurrence was it that everyone fell into stunned silence. Before any of them got their voice back, Allison Cameron skidded back into view, almost crashing into the glass in her haste. She put out her hands to stop herself falling and House instinctively reached out to try to catch her, momentarily forgetting the glass separating them. Cameron managed to prevent her tumble and while she was busy righting herself, House covered up his reaching for her by placing his free hand on the glass, as though leaning against it. Wilson noticed his friend's actions and aimed a small smile at the back of his head. Everybody else was fixated on the breathless Cameron and was not paying attention to House's movements. Wilson quickly followed suit, eager to her what the young doctor had to say.

"Holly says she came back from China a week ago. That's the last place she was." She looked expectantly up at House who stared unseeingly back. He was mumbling to himself under his breath, too quietly for anyone to hear and with too little lip movement to enable lip-reading.

"House?" Chase said quietly, trying to make him explain himself.

"Greg?" Cameron asked, twenty seconds after Chase had asked, when it seemed House would not answer Chase. The sound of her voice broke him out of his reverie and he looked straight into her eyes.

"Without blood it's hard to diagnose. It fits though. Have you listened to Holly's chest? How does it sound?"

"Different from how it should." At his continued question glance she clarified, "Rattling and..." she struggled for the right word, "Kind of cracking."

"Then it definitely fits. Without testing the blood chemistry or measuring white blood cell count it's hard." He fell silent once more and Cuddy, in her concern and worry, grew angry.

"For God's sake House! What is it? What do you think it is?"

House looked across at her briefly before locking his eyes with Cameron's again.

"The symptoms fit SARS. And the only way I can think of to test for it, is to treat for it."


	9. Chapter 9

_Hi everyone._

_Sorry it's been a while but I hope this makes up for it._

_Jenny._

* * *

Total Lockdown.

Chapter 9.

"I'm sorry, what? SARS? What's SARS?" Holly frowned as she looked across at Cameron's desolate form in her bed. Behind her Stephen also looked in curiously and with fear clear in his face.

"It stands for severe acute respiratory syndrome. Basically it's a virus that attacks the lungs."

Stephen looked thoughtful. "Wasn't there an outbreak in China a few years back? I think I read about it."

Cameron nodded. "2003, yes there was."

Stephen swallowed. "It was fatal."

Cameron's eyes widened and she rushed to explain. "No, no." She paused and chewed her lip, thinking how best to proceed. "About 91 per cent of people made a recovery."

"So 9 per cent didn't." Holly said, eyes wide and fearful.

Cameron leaned forward earnestly and reached out for Holly's hand, lying on the bed next to her, and alternated eye contact between Holly and Stephen.

"Those were the cases where there were other diseases complicating the SARS. In most cases, those who were totally healthy before they contracted SARS made a full recovery. And neither of you seem to be ill, or have anything else except from SARS. There's really no need to fear the worst." She waited to allow this to sink in, and smiled slightly when Holly visibly relaxed a little.

"So what now?" Stephen asked.

"Well, they've given us an antiviral medication and some steroids which should help. Luckily, it doesn't take too long to have an effect so we should see some changes soon."

Stephen nodded and Cameron smiled. "I hear your girlfriend is coming in." She was eager to move their minds onto happier subjects and was rewarded with a softened expression stealing over Stephen's face.

"They told me she had a bit of trouble getting a flight out of Missouri but she's on her way."

"What's her name?" Holly chimed in, and Cameron smiled to herself. She had known Holly wouldn't be able to resist joining in a relationship conversation- as she had said earlier, she liked happy things.

"Sian. She's 24. She's studying law at the moment."

"That's good then."

Cameron tuned out the conversation as soon as she sensed that it would carry on comfortably without her. She had other, more pressing, things on her mind.

As much as she had tried to comfort Holly and Stephen, the truth was that SARS was extremely dangerous. She was aware that there was a real chance that one of them might get worse, even – she grimaced and her heart contracted in fear at the thought – die.

Cameron had complete faith in Greg, but in the months they had been dating, he had become increasingly easy to read, and she had clearly seen fear in his eyes when he told her of his suspicions. The idea that Gregory House, with his superb medical skills and high intelligence was frightened gave her reason to believe she should be as well.

She tried, with little success, to push this fear away. As long as House was working on the case, she knew he wouldn't give up until he was certain he had solved it.

* * *

"SARS? House, you do know-" Wilson began tentatively, eyes trained on his friend.

"Of course I do Wilson. There is no definitive treatment. But if we've caught it early enough- and Holly Byrne only came back from China four days ago- then certain drugs will have a positive effect." House's irritation, born out of a mixture of fear and helplessness, made the others nervous, and all were seated or standing a mindful distance from him.

"They might." Chase looked sceptical, an expression which earned him a fierce glare from House.

"They _will_ Chase. Apart from SARS, they're all healthy and if it is SARS, they're in the early stages. They're not even displaying all the symptoms yet. There will be some lung damage, of course there will. But we've started the treatment. And all we can do now is hope there's some improvement soon."

Vikki was sat at the desk in the corner, scrolling the mouse down through the website page she had found. The bright light from the white screen lit her face and she squinted slightly against it.

Chase looked at her, in her lab coat and with her brown hair tied up loosely and thought it was probably lucky she didn't need glasses for reading as Cameron did. House might've hit her for simply looking vaguely like Cameron, even though the similarities basically stopped at hair colour.

"It says here that with fast enough recognition and care, there's a 91.4 per cent survival rate." Vikki called over, not taking her eyes off the screen. "There's no certain way of treating but the best way is with the antiviral ribaviran."

House nodded, eyes downcast and thoughtful.

"I knew that. The ER has already started the treatment. Holly Byrne, Stephen Meyers and Allison are all being given ribaviran and steroids. SARS is very serious and we can't risk it spreading. We can't get any more blood out of the ER so if the SARS treatment fails, we'll have to try and diagnose another way. Although, at this stage, no explanation is likely to be good news." House rubbed his tired eyes and fought back a yawn. It had been a long day.

Vikki removed her gaze from the bright computer screen and twisted around in the chair. "We should know one way or the other soon. The antiviral should have an effect if it is SARS, especially as we caught it early. I think we should just wait and see what happens for a little while and then make a decision as to what to do next."

House nodded. "Nothing else we can do really." He glanced towards the board, which now had the acronym'SARS' written across the bottom in large, shaky letters. He stared at it for a second before ripping his gaze from it to meet Wilson's sympathetic eyes.

His friend had been rather quiet, save for the odd comment here and there, ever since House had made his rather dramatic diagnosis outside the ER and House was beginning to become irritated by the half-pitying, half-wary looks Wilson had been throwing his way. The oncologist was regarding him as though he was liable to throw himself out of the nearest window in sorrow, and House could tell Wilson was on tenterhooks, prepared to leap into action should House attempt anything dangerous.

House threw Wilson a compulsory glare before glancing at the clock mounted on the opposite wall. "Half past five. You guys better go home. Keep your pagers on. ER said they'd contact us all if there was a problem and I want you here no later than fifteen minutes after that pager goes off, no matter what time it is."

Chase cleared his throat tentatively. "But I live twenty minutes away."

Save for a dirty look, House ignored this statement completely. Instead he spoke to the room at large. "Off you go then. There's nothing else we can do tonight so go home, sleep, eat, feed the cat, watch Oprah, do whatever else you do in an evening – and please don't tell me any details, I'm not interested – and if your pager goes off, drop everything and run back here. Okay?"

There were a few murmurs of assent and House clapped his hands and began to wave them away.

"Go, go, go. Run along children."

Chase and Vikki immediately made for the door as fast as they could, Vikki packing her bag as she walked, and Chase narrowly avoiding walking into the door, after almost forgetting to open it in his haste. They disappeared down the corridor, obviously glad not to be around House when his cruel comments had been sharpened by fear and were being delivered with venom.

House walked into his office, trying not to notice that Wilson had stayed, hoping he would get the none-too-subtle hint and leave before House had sat down and had no choice but to acknowledge his presence. No such luck.

Wilson entered the darkening office and stood directly in front of the desk, right in House's eye line. He stood perfectly still with his arms folded across his chest, staring rather rudely in House's opinion, apparently waiting for House to speak. He finally did, purely to break the tension.

"Can I help you? Don't you have some kind of animal rescue programme recorded to watch at home?" He waved impatiently towards the door, dismissing Wilson with a sweep of his hand.

Wilson ignored this and resolutely stayed in his spot. "Are you alright House?"

"Fine." House answered quickly, hoping this would be a sufficient reply, while knowing deep down that it wouldn't be.

"No you're not."

"Wilson, I'm not the one stuck in the ER. And I know you're thinking it, but I'm not about to do anything stupid."

"You tried to go into a quarantined ER. That's hardly responsible behaviour House."

House smirked at him. "And you were the epitome of a dependable adult? You gave me a mask and tried to hold Cuddy back."

"There didn't seem much point in trying to stop you." Wilson sank into the chair in front of House's desk and watched House twirling his cane in his right hand, his eyes unfocussed and his attention clearly on something else. "In hindsight, it was a good thing she stopped you."

"Yeah, okay. Don't tell her that though. Can't have her thinking she was right."

Wilson laughed slightly and nodded but sobered quickly. "So what happens now?"

House sighed and stopped twirling the cane, resting the wooden walking stick against the desk. His eyes roamed the room restlessly before settling on Wilson after a few minutes. He only maintained eye contact for a moment before his blue eyes skittered away again.

"We wait. Cameron's been given the ribaviran and there's nothing else we can do at the moment. Just wait for any changes. If she and the others get better, it is working and we don't need to do any more tests. If they get worse, then we have to think of something else." He looked around the room once again, his gaze lingering on the door to the corridor. He gestured towards it with his head. "You better go home and rest. If there are any problems you need to be alert."

Wilson noted House's characteristic avoidance actions. He was evading eye contact and fidgeting in his seat. He stood up to leave, realising House's desire to be alone. He paused just before he reached the door as something occurred to him.

"Aren't you leaving yet?"

House looked up from his desk. "Not yet."

Wilson stared at him. "You're not going home at all tonight are you?"

House hesitated and shook his head.

"Don't think so. I'll just stay here. I live further away than Chase."

Wilson smiled to himself. He knew perfectly well that House wanted to be near Cameron and wouldn't go home if it would mean he wouldn't be able to be with her instantly if there was a problem.

"Alright." There was no point in arguing. "Try and get some sleep though." House nodded, looking once more at the desk, seemingly lost in thought once more and continued to sit there long after the closing of the door signalled Wilson's departure.


	10. Chapter 10

_Hi everyone._

_Sorry it's been a while but it's been a busy week. This chapter is longer than the others though so I hope that makes up for it. From next week my life is set to become a whole lot busier so the next update and the ones after that might take a bit longer but I will try to never leave it too long between updates. _

_Good news is, I've planned the rest of this out chapter by chapter so I now know where I'm going with it and how long it's going to last. At the moment it looks like it will be about nineteen chapters long but that might change if I combine chapters if I think they're too short._

_Thanks for your patience and have a nice day. _

_Jenny._

* * *

Total Lockdown.

Chapter 10.

Wilson took one look at House's tired, pale face and sighed. He hadn't really expected House to sleep for long during the night but by the looks of it he hadn't slept at all. In fact, he didn't look like he had moved. He was sitting behind the desk, staring into space with the medical files belonging to Cameron, Holly and Stephen in front of him.

"Did you get any sleep?" Wilson asked as he placed his bag against the wall and collapsed in the chair facing House.

House didn't look at him; just continued staring into space. "Tried. Thought I heard my pager so I stopped."

Wilson knew he was lying but chose not to start lecturing House on the importance of sleep. He could look after himself. "Has your pager gone off?"

House shook his head, still not looking Wilson in the eye. "I thought I heard it once but it might have been a dog outside. There's been nothing from the ER."

"I suppose that's something. She's not got any worse."

"I was going to go down there but I figured she'd be asleep anyway. We'll wait for the others to get here and then go and see what's going on. I would have been told if any of them had deteriorated but we need to know exactly what's going on; if there's been any improvement at all, even if it's only a small one."

House blindly reached for his Vicodin bottle and swallowed two of the pills, washing them down his dry throat with the cup of coffee on his desk. He grimaced when he swallowed the uncomfortably cold liquid which, thinking about it, Wilson realised must have been at least twelve hours old.

Wilson pulled the cup away from House, standing as he did so and walking out of the door to the conference room. "Couldn't you have got up long enough to make some more coffee?" He called the question over his shoulder as he reached the sink and turned on the tap to rinse and wash the mug.

"No." House's voice was nearer than he expected and Wilson nearly dropped the mug in shock, but caught it before it fell and smashed in the sink. Turning his head, Wilson saw that House had followed him into the conference room and had slumped into the chair nearest the glass door to the corridor.

House watched silently as Wilson wash the cup and place it upside down by the side of the sink to dry.

"So you've had nothing to drink all night?" Wilson asked as he busied himself with the coffee machine. "Wouldn't it have been easier to just make yourself something?"

House leaned forwards, his elbows resting on the table. Wilson thought with a wry smile that if his own mother could see his friend now, House would be getting an earache from listening to her lecture about table manners. Mrs Wilson had been quite the authority on etiquette when James Wilson was growing up and had never quite left the frame of mind that her son and his friends required regular tutelage on the subject.

"In the years I've been here, I have never once made my own coffee. I wasn't going to start now so I decided to wait until you or one of the others came in." House stated simply.

Wilson was rather surprised at this. Not at being treated as House's personal barista- that was something he accepted with an ease that made him suspect he had been around House for far too long a time. No, what he was surprised about was that House, with all his claims of being independent and not needing anyone (until Cameron came along that was), had never once used the coffee machine in his own office.

"Never? You've _never_ made your own coffee?"

House shrugged easily, the only contradictions to his relaxed air being his rumpled clothes and dark bags under his eyes.

"Never needed to. I always had a team to do it for me. First there was Chase but the less that's said about his coffee-making skills the better." House gave a mock-shudder as he remembered. "Rough, really rough. Then Allison came along. That was one of the questions I asked when I interviewed her actually- if she could make a decent cup. God knew I couldn't survive on Chase's attempts much longer. You know, if he hadn't served it up in a 'World's Best Boss' mug, I would have been sure he was trying to poison me. But you don't suck up that much to someone you're trying to off."

Wilson smirked. "I wouldn't be too sure if I were you. Maybe he was trying to make you sick so he could cure you and take over your job."

"No I'm too loveable. Anyway nobody wants this job that badly. All that paperwork, charting..."

"House when was the last time you did any charting?"

"Not the point. The point is that Chase adores me."

Wilson rolled his eyes while he poured the freshly brewed coffee into two mugs. "So Cameron's coffee skills were an improvement?"

"They could hardly have been worse than Chase's. Not the most wonderful in the world but when you look like Allison does, who cares? And she was better at it than anyone else so far."

"You keep track of these things?" Wilson handed House the red mug, which he accepted wordlessly, before sitting down on the opposite side of the table with his own drink.

"How else am I supposed to know who deserves the biggest Christmas bonus?"

"Maybe who works the hardest?"

"Too obvious. They'd be expecting that."

"So instead you calculate it on things that don't actually matter medically speaking like the best coffee-maker?"

House nodded. "I'm also in the process of working out the whiniest employee so far by counting the number of times they've gone running to Cuddy."

"Who's the frontrunner?"

"Don't know yet. Haven't got out of the idea stage."

"Put me down for twenty bucks on Cameron. She has a pretty good ethical compass."

Reminded (as if he'd forgotten) of Cameron, House looked over his shoulder towards the door. "Where are they? We need to go down to the ER."

Wilson pointed at the clock. "They aren't late yet. They've still got ten minutes."

House made an irritated noise in his throat, midway between a grunt and a whine and took a large gulp of his coffee, almost spitting it across the table when he found it was too hot. He managed to swallow it without wetting the surface and gave Wilson a dirty look.

"Coffee's meant to be hot House." Wilson said blithely and hid his own smile behind the rim of his mug.

Three minutes later Vikki walked in and, at Wilson's indication, grabbed a drink of coffee. Four minutes after her entrance, Chase followed. Before he had a chance to get more than a few steps inside the door, let alone pour himself coffee he found himself practically herded back out of the door by House, closely followed by Vikki and Wilson, who abandoned their drinks hastily to jog after House.

* * *

"The coughing seems to have eased up a bit in both Doctor Cameron and Mr Meyers this morning. Looks like the treatment is working but there isn't any significant improvement in any of the patients, and Miss Byrne is as bad as ever." The man, Doctor Jack Davies, said from inside the ER.

Chase, Vikki, Wilson and House stood in a line facing him and Jack Davies' eyes darted between them all, not entirely sure where to look. He pulled his lab coat further around him and pushed his hands deep into his pockets for lack of anything else to do.

"So it is SARS then?" Vikki enquired.

"Looks like it yes." The doctor in the ER said, carefully avoiding House's eyes for fear of how this piece of news would make him react. To everyone's surprise he was eerily calm, staring straight ahead and not shouting or demanding to see Cameron or himself.

"How's Cameron feeling?" Wilson asked, shooting a sideways glance at House, who pulled himself out of his reverie at the sound of the question and fixed his gaze on Jack Davies.

"She's asleep at the moment. She was awake a few minutes ago and seemed optimistic." Davies' eyes met House's before he continued. "She trusts you. She believes you found it early enough and the reduced coughing this morning seems to confirm that. She is, of course, still worried about Holly Byrne's condition as, although she has not started showing any more symptoms, she has not shown any improvement so far."

House nodded and Davies hesitated before speaking again. "Would you like me to get her?" He asked tentatively and then seemed to regret asking.

"No. Let her sleep." House replied and Davies relaxed in relief. He didn't think it was a good idea to wake her when she was still rather ill but he knew House and his reputation and wanted to make the offer in case House started making demands to see her and caused a scene.

"We're keeping a close eye on all three of them and we'll let you know if anything else happens. Is there anything else you'd like us to do?"

House rested more weight on his cane as he considered. "Just... let me know if any of them gets worse. Monitor Holly Byrne's condition very closely as I think she's our main worry right now."

"I will do. Anything else?" He paused before adding cautiously. "Any messages?"

House sighed, searching fruitlessly for words that would make it all better. "Just tell her... I was here and I'm taking care of it."

"That's all?"

House nodded and Davies left. Wilson turned his head to House. "That's all?"

House fixed him with a glare. "What else could I say? I'm not going to ask some man I don't know to tell her I love her, am I?"

Wilson said nothing else, but looked at his friend with that irritating sympathy back in his eyes.

"Okay. What now?" Chase asked, looking, as always, to House for guidance.

"Now we wait. Nothing else to do. I'm going back upstairs and because I want you all close by if any news comes in and we need to get back down here quickly, you're all coming too."

"And do what?" Vikki asked confused.

"We just sit in the conference room. It's what we always used to do when I worked for him and there was nothing to do." Chase told her.

"So we do nothing?"

"Not nothing. We find something to keep us occupied but which we can drop at a moment's notice if need be." Chase supplied. "I usually find the crossword in the newspaper."

Vikki rolled her eyes. "Let's go then."

* * *

"I'm bored." Vikki whispered to Chase half an hour later in the conference room, not loud enough for the sound to carry through to House's office, where he sat talking to Wilson with his feet on the desk.

Chase looked at her for a second before turning back to the newspaper he had on his lap and thumbing through it. Finding what he was looking for he tore a page out and handed it across to her. She took it and as soon as his hand was free once more he pulled a pen from his pocket and gave that to her too.

She looked at the ripped page in bemusement. "Sudoku?"

"Yeah. You know how to do them right?"

"Of course." She looked mildly offended at the insinuation but then grinned and leaned forwards to rest the page on the table. "Thanks."

Ten minutes later she sat up straight once more. "Finished."

Chase looked up in surprise. "Already?"

Vikki shrugged. "It was an easy one and I was obsessed a couple of years ago. I got pretty good at them. How's the crossword going?"

Chase glanced down at the maze of black and white boxes in front of him that was three-quarters completed. "Fine."

Vikki looked around the conference room in silence, the only noise in the room the scratching of Chase's pen nib on the newspaper and the sound of low male voices chatting in House's office.

After a few more minutes of quiet, during which Chase finished off his puzzle and Vikki studied the room which had been his workplace for over three years, Vikki jumped when Chase unexpectedly broke the spell.

"Have you seen that new movie at the cinema?" He didn't look up from the page where he was dutifully filling in the last answer to solve the crossword.

"Which one?" Vikki asked, thoroughly confused.

"Any of them."

"You're asking me if I've seen... _any_ movies? In my whole life?"

"I'm asking if you'd like to go and see one."

"With you? Like a date?"

He finally looked up. "Just like a date." He confirmed. "After this is done I mean. We have to solve the case first but I just thought maybe you'd like to. I mean you did say once we would just be friends for now but that was three months ago and you thought I was still getting over Cameron and I'm definitely over her now." The longer Vikki went without speaking the more nervous Chase got and he started to backtrack.

"I mean, it's alright if you don't want to, I just thought I'd ask. Never mind." He looked down again and it was this more than anything that galvanised Vikki into action.

"No, no. I'd like to. I was just a bit surprised that's all." Chase looked back up to her and gave a smile which she returned warmly.

"Okay."

"Yeah." Her smile widened and she was about to say something else when the opening of the door to the corridor disturbed them.

A young woman with titian hair and a pale face stepped in. She wore denim jeans and a purple tee-shirt, which had a small tea stain at the bottom near the hem, and her brown eyes glanced between Chase and Vikki uncertainly.

She cleared her throat while Vikki and Chase stared. "Doctor House?"

Chase opened his mouth to respond when House's voice came from the entrance to his office. He and Wilson had evidently noticed the arrival of the woman and had come into the conference room to find out what was going on.

"That would be me. The devilishly handsome one over here. Who are you?"

"I was sent up by reception. They said I could find Doctor House here."

"Well, they had to get something right one of these days. I think they were hired out of pity. They might not have any organisational skills but if they can make some sort of attempt at reading and writing then they're in. Yes, I'm Doctor House. But you still haven't answered my question. Who are you?"

"Sorry." She stepped forward and shook her hair out of her face. "My name's Sian Lomax. You're treating my boyfriend, Stephen Meyers?"

Wilson nodded in recognition and stepped forward to shake Sian's hand. "Yes we are. That's Doctor House, I'm Doctor Wilson. At the table there we have Doctor Chase," he paused and gestured towards Chase, "and Doctor Tatum." He pointed towards Vikki who smiled at the woman in greeting.

"You're the girlfriend who was flying in from Missouri?" Wilson continued.

"Yeah, that's me. I came straight from the airport. How is he?"

"We've started treatment and he seems to be getting better." House was making no attempt to speak so Wilson took over the job of explaining while Chase and Vikki sat quietly.

"What does he have?"

"Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. SARS for short. It's a viral infection in the lungs. It's quite serious but we think we've caught it early enough."

Sian looked shocked. "Will he be alright?"

"Like I said, he's being treated and there seems to be some improvement but we can't really tell the extent of the damage just yet."

Sian looked briefly around the rest of the people in the room, her curious gaze resting just a bit longer on the silently staring man with the cane who looked as if he had slept about as much as she had.

Finally she looked back at Wilson. "Has Amy brought Liam in?"

Wilson looked confused. "Who?"

"Amy, his ex-wife, has she brought his son in to see him?"

"No, not yet. She was worried about infection but we've called and assured her that the quarantine was successful and all the cases are contained and she has agreed to bring him in after school today."

"Okay. I'll make myself scarce when she gets here. We... tolerate each other but she doesn't like dealing with me more than she has to."

Wilson nodded. "Would you like to go and see him now?"

Sian smiled gratefully but shook her head. "Just give me a minute. I want to change my shirt first." She scratched at the tea stain with her thumbnail. "We hit a bit of turbulence on the way in." She said by way of explanation for the stain.

"I'm sure we have a spare top somewhere you can change into." Vikki began to stand up from her chair as she spoke and moved to stand nearer to Sian.

"No need. I came directly from the airport. My suitcase is downstairs in reception. Security wouldn't let me bring it up here but they said they'd look after it for me. There's a change of clothes in there."

Vikki nodded. "I'll come down with you and show you where you can change and where the ER is. You can't go in but you'll be able to see him if he's feeling well enough."

Sian thanked her and then the other three in turn before leaving with Vikki to go downstairs. House stared after her, this woman who was in the same situation as himself and inhaled deeply as he tried to steady himself.


	11. Chapter 11

_Hello everybody._

_Sorry it's been a while. There's been a lot going on recently but thank you for being patient._

_Have a nice day._

_Jenny._

* * *

Total Lockdown.

Chapter 11.

Having donned a clean shirt and ran a brush through her hair, Sian stood facing Stephen (who already seemed much better, Vikki noted to tell the others) through the glass.

She couldn't hear what was being said from her position a little way down the corridor, where she was standing to give them some time alone. She could however, very clearly see the upset on both Stephen's and Sian's face and she felt deeply for them. They looked as though they'd like nothing more than to be with each other, touching and talking to each other without obstruction.

When Sian stepped closer to the glass, lowering her voice for added privacy, Vikki looked down and, for lack of anything better to look at, studied her cuticles with more attention than they perhaps deserved.

A tap on the glass nearby brought her attention away from her nails and towards the ER. Jack Davies had knocked on the window sharply to draw her attention, standing a few feet along from where Sian and Stephen were conducting their quiet, intimate conversation. He beckoned her closer and she obliged stepping up close to the glass.

The older doctor waited until Vikki had moved to the glass before speaking.

"Thought you might like to know what was going on." Jack's voice was slightly muffled by the mask he was still wearing as a precaution, even though the contagion seemed to have been contained within Holly, Stephen and Allison. He smiled, or at least, Vikki thought he did, but it was difficult to tell with the mask obscuring hr view of his mouth.

"Good news?" Vikki asked hesitantly.

Jack nodded. "Very. As you can see Mr Meyers-" he nodded towards where the man in question stood with his girlfriend, "-has improved further overnight. Both he and Doctor Cameron's coughs have all but disappeared and their breathing is considerably easier. Still some stiffness of muscle reported but all in all they're making good progress."

Vikki smiled in relief before something odd struck her about her colleague's statement. Her grin quickly, almost instantly, dissolved.

"And Holly Byrne?"

Jack sighed. "Not as good I'm afraid. While her cough seems to have faded and her temperature fallen a little, there have been no other marked differences in her condition. She is having as much trouble breathing as ever and the stiffness has not alleviated. I'm afraid she is not quite out of trouble yet."

Vikki scratched her forehead just above her left eyebrow as she thought.

"It might just be that she is taking longer to respond to treatment. After all, she did catch the virus first and she had been suffering for at least the five days since she came back from China, before Cameron and Mr Meyers caught it." Jack continued when Vikki said nothing else.

"Let's hope so." She looked up at him. "So are we thinking that Doctor Cameron and Stephen Meyers will recover?"

"Unless there are unforeseen circumstances or illnesses hindering their recovery, I would say so yes. It looks like it was definitely SARS. Now we just have to hope Miss Byrne's progress will soon be as good as the other two's."

"Thanks. I'll tell House, Wilson and Chase when I go back upstairs."

"I'm sure House will be happy that Cameron will be okay."

Vikki frowned, confused. "I don't think I've ever seen him happy."

"Yes you have. You just weren't around for long enough before he got together with Cameron to see him miserable, and then notice the difference when they became a couple. House's happy is different to everyone else's happy. You think this is bad? Trust me, it is nothing compared to six months ago."

Vikki fell silent, thinking about this and Jack Davies moved away, after a quick nod goodbye. Before she could fall too far into her thoughts, she was jolted out of them by the gentle pressure of a hand on her arm.

"Doctor Tatum?"

She looked across at Sian standing beside her. A swift glance told her Stephen had disappeared; presumably their visit had been halted by a concerned medical professional's urging him to rest.

"Finished?"

"Yes." Sian smiled. "He says he's feeling a lot better."

"He is a lot better. The doctors in the ER who have been monitoring him all night say he'll make a full recovery. There might still be repercussions, after all he was very ill but for now at least, he is out of danger."

Sian smiled. "Thank God." She glanced down at herself. "Listen, Stephen's gone to rest, so I'm going to go home for a little while. Just to drop off my stuff and have a shower. I'll be back in a little while. If he asks, can you tell him please?"

"Of course."

* * *

It was half an hour and a cup of coffee after she had originally left that Vikki re-entered the conference room alone. House stared at her over his fresh cup of coffee (dutifully brought to him by Wilson) and raised an eyebrow.

"Did you get lost? How long does it take to take someone down to reception?"

Vikki sighed. "Sian asked me to stay with her. I stood back from her to give her some time with Stephen. I was going to ask her back up here, if only so she won't be alone, but she went home to drop off her bags and get a shower and some fresh clothes on."

"Never mind her. How was everyone down there? You said you saw Stephen, how was he?"

"Breathing is back to normal, coughing almost nonexistent."

House nodded silently and used his cane to push himself to his feet. "Good." He put the cup of untouched coffee down on the sideboard but remained with his back to the others.

"Did you hear anything about Allison and Holly?"

"Cameron is pretty much the same as Stephen. She's a lot better, and fully expected to make a full recovery. I didn't see her."

"And Holly?" Wilson prompted.

"Slightly better but they're still concerned. She hasn't improved as much or as quickly as the others."

Chase, from his position reclining comfortably in his chair, spoke up for the first time since Vikki had returned.

"SARS it is then. Nothing else to do now but wait, I guess."

"You guess?" House turned to look at him. "You _did _go to medical school didn't you? Don't tell me you've been guessing all your diagnoses all these years." He scratched his chin. "Would explain a lot though. Why you're nearly always wrong, for one. Haven't you learned by now that only I am good enough to get things right by guessing?"

Chase rolled his eyes. "Okay. I don't guess. I _know_ there's nothing else to do." He subtly glanced at Wilson silently, who was standing closest to him, for confirmation.

"Yes Chase, that's right." Wilson looked across at House who was staring off into space again.

"She's going to be alright House."

House looked down and Wilson sighed. He knew his friend had been through so much and doubted House would believe that Cameron would be okay until he had her back with him. He was still semi-worried that the universe would find a way to kick him in the stomach again. With any luck it wouldn't be long before Cameron and everyone else trapped inside, could come out of the ER.

* * *

After lunch, House stepped out of the elevator, having received a message from the ER telling him that Cameron was once more awake.

He had left the others upstairs, preferring to see Allison alone now that there was no more mystery to solve. The diagnosis had been correct; the treatment was working and all there was to do now was to wait and see what would come of it. House wasn't naive in the slightest and knew there were bound to be repercussions. Cameron's lungs had been damaged and at the very least she might have some breathing troubles in the future.

He approached the ER but was stopped by the sound of high-heeled shoes tapping rhythmically on the floor and he stifled a groan. Those shoes could only belong to one person and for them to be walking with such purpose...

He turned and faced Lisa Cuddy even before she had spoken a word to draw his attention. He was somewhat surprised to see she was not alone in her determined striding towards him and he instinctively knew who the woman and child accompanying her were. Who else could they be?

"Doctor House!" Cuddy called and House allowed himself an amused smile. The only time she would ever use the title 'doctor' was when she was with a patient or with someone she wanted to be impressed. Most of the time she greeted him with an angry yell of his surname or, failing that, an irritated grunt when she didn't trust herself to speak to him at all.

"Doctor House," she said again when he stared evenly back at her. "This is Amy Meyers and her son Liam. They're here to see Stephen Meyers."

House gave her a look that clearly said, 'Well, obviously,' and Cuddy sighed.

House turned to the tall blonde woman next to Cuddy and nodded. He glanced down to see a young boy clinging onto his mother's hand and staring at the cane in House's hand with the kind of blatant curiosity that is only present in young children who have not yet fully learned the lesson that it is rude to stare.

He stared at the boy, who he had learned from Cameron's detailed, often to the point of excessiveness, history-taking was five years old, until he looked up and met the man's piercing gaze. Quickly, Liam averted his eyes from House, his leg and his cane. Satisfied House looked back towards Amy.

"Did Wilson tell you what was going on over the phone?"

"Wilson?"

"The overly polite guy who spoke to you on the phone." House explained impatiently. He was eager to get to Allison and could do without the tiresome task of outlining Stephen's condition.

"Oh! Yes, he did. He said he wasn't contagious, he was getting better and it was safe to bring Liam in." She looked down at the five year old who was now sat on the floor, closely inspecting Cuddy's shoes while she awkwardly eyed the top of his head, unsure how to respond. She couldn't even move her feet to step back for fear of treading on the child's fingers.

"Okay then." Without further comment, House turned and made his way to the ER, swallowing a Vicodin as he went when a shot of pain suddenly passed through his thigh. Behind him he could hear Amy pulling Liam to his feet and begin to follow him. They crossed the foyer, Amy and Liam a few steps behind and Cuddy walking back to her office, now that she was sure she wouldn't break anyone's fingers by moving.

House reached the glass window and caught the eye of Naomi the nurse standing at the nurse's station. She nodded to him as she approached and he heard Amy stop walking as she stood next to him by the glass. Naomi looked at the blonde and then down at the boy and a look of understanding crossed her face.

"Hello Doctor House." Naomi greeted but she was looking and smiling at Amy as she did so.

"Can you go and get Stephen Meyers?" Naomi nodded and began to turn away when House continued. "And Allison." Naomi walked back down the ward to do as he had asked and Amy looked at House questioningly. Although he didn't turn and look at her, electing instead to keep his gaze on the room beyond the glass, he could, from the corner of his eyes, see her green eyes tracing his face as she observed him.

"What?" Perhaps he hadn't meant for his voice to come out as harshly as it had, and she flinched slightly from the vehemence of the one word question. She quickly composed herself however and continued staring right at him.

"Allison's another patient, is she?"

House inhaled deeply through his nose. "She's a doctor. But she's caught the same thing as Stephen has."

Amy continued to scrutinise him carefully before a gasp of realisation escaped her. "And you and her...?"

House nodded once but did not give further answer. Instead he stood silently for a moment before speaking again.

"He's your ex-husband."

"Yes..." Amy dragged the word out and it was clear that she did not see where House was going with this.

"So why did you keep his name?"

Amy looked down at Liam who was standing close to her legs, looking around curiously. "I kept my son's name."

House had no answer to this but was fortunately spared having to reply by the arrival of Allison and Stephen at the window.

The man's eyes instantly brightened when he saw his son behind his ex-wife's legs and he crouched as close to the glass as he could. He looked up at Amy and the two greeted each other cordially, if a little _too_ formally for people who were once very much in love.

House's attention was diverted willingly from Stephen's enquiring after what his son had done in school recently, by Allison's speaking his name softly.

"Hello Greg."

He smiled at her. "How are you feeling?"

"Better, thanks. Can't wait to get out of here though. I know how you must feel about clinic duty now. I feel like if I have to spend another minute in here over the next six months, I'll go absolutely crazy." She laughed and House joined her, expressing his intense relief at the fact that she looked and sounded so much better. Gone was the hoarse voice coming from a throat that was sore from coughing. Her breathing was easy and, although she was holding her head carefully, she was not wincing whenever she moved her neck. From this he thought the stiff neck was a thing of the past.

"Holly Byrne's seems to be getting better too. Hopefully we'll see more of an improvement soon."

"She doesn't seem worried, you know." Cameron told him. "I asked her if she was and she said there didn't seem any point. The treatment was working on Stephen and I and so she knew your diagnosis was right, she just had to wait and hope she started getting better soon."

"Brave." House observed and Cameron murmured in agreement. "I asked her why she didn't even seem that worried before the diagnosis. Know what she said?"

"Go on."

"She said that she trusted you because I said you were good."

"I am good."

"I know you are. But it just surprised me how willing she was to take the word of a stranger without question."

House considered this. "We do it every day. We believe the guy on the telephone when they say the electrician will be there at three- well, the first time we do, then we know better. We believe the recording on the phone telling us we're the next caller. We believe the times on bus timetables and believe the things on the cafeteria menu will actually be for sale."

Cameron rolled her eyes. "Do you have to make everything into a debate? This is Holly's _life_ we're talking about. I never really thought about how people trust strangers with a thing as important as life because they're a doctor."

"That's what they've been taught. And it's our job to let them."

Cameron nodded. "Okay then." She smiled and the subject was dropped, both more than happy to discard the professional discussions of health matters and just be together.

They talked of inconsequential things, happy just to be with each other and not worrying about health issues any more. She laughed freely and he smiled more than he had done since before she had fallen ill.

Still, her body had been through a lot over the last couple of days and when House noticed her third stifled yawn he suggested she go back to bed.

Stephen, Amy and Liam were still talking next to them, having carried out social convention by politely covering Amy's career as a high school counsellor, Stephen's career as a chef and, more enthusiastically, several aspects of their son's life.

Reluctantly, Allison laid a hand lightly on Stephen's shoulder to draw his attention. She explained that he had better get some more rest and allowed him some time to bid his son and ex-wife goodbye for now while she did the same with House.

"See you soon then. I have to stay in here for a little while until we're sure I'm totally better and then I'll come and find you." She smiled but it faded slightly when he shook his head.

"Trust me, no need. I'll be here when they let you out." Her smile widened again and he returned it happily.

"I love you Greg." She told him as she stepped back slightly from the window, evidently preparing herself to go back to her bed. He did not reply but she found it was not necessary. She knew the truth and could read it in his eyes so no declaration was necessary.

Just then Stephen stood up, having said his goodbyes to Liam and Amy and he and Cameron had begun to walk away when Amy's voice stopped them.

Amy had glanced behind her and caught sight of a red-headed woman. The woman in question had stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Amy and her gaze had flickered down to Liam before she turned on her heel and began to quickly walk away again. At the sound of Amy's voice, however, Sian stopped and turned slowly around once more. Stephen had also noticed Sian and was regarding the unfolding scene with some trepidation.

"Why didn't you tell me she was here?"


	12. Chapter 12

_Hi everyone._

_Sorry it's been a while. I've been having a bit of a hard time lately but hopefully things should get better. Hope you enjoy the chapter though._

_Jenny._

Total Lockdown.

Chapter 12.

Naturally it was House, his mind unburdened from worrying about Cameron, who recovered fastest and stopped looking between the two women to focus his attention on Amy.

"Is it relevant? Your son's father is ill. Don't you think Liam should see him?"

"No, I agree with that. Liam should absolutely see Stephen." Amy answered House without removing her eyes from Sian. Her hand grasped Liam's as she stared straight at the fidgeting girlfriend of her ex-husband. "I just did not want my son to see her. You should have told me she was here."

Sian responded before House had a chance to defend his motives in keeping Sian's presence a secret.

"I do have a right to be here Amy. And I told them not to tell you I was here because I thought it might make you keep Liam away. You don't have to talk to me. We'll just stay away from each other but you can't keep Liam from Stephen."

Amy stared at her, contemplating her words. "Fine. But don't talk to my son. He's upset enough." With that she turned and pulled Liam away down the corridor.

Sian sighed. "That actually went better than I expected. Better than some of the times we've crossed paths in the past."

"She knew better than to kick off here." Stephen explained. "And she doesn't like to be seen as anything other than the perfect mother to Liam. She never argues in front of him."

Sian met Stephen's eye. "Are you alright?"

His face split into a smile. "Of course. I got to see you and Liam and it looks like I'm going to be okay."

Sian smiled back warmly. "I'm glad she brought him. So did you get a chance to talk to him?"

Stephen nodded and opened his mouth to reply but was cut off before he could begin by Cameron.

"Er... Stephen? You better get back to bed."

Stephen smiled apologetically at Sian. "Right, Doctor Cameron. See you later Sian." He nodded at House politely and walked away, followed closely by Cameron.

House was about to leave too, when he noticed Jack Davis making his way purposefully towards him.

House looked pointedly at Sian, who took the hint and left, muttering something about going to the relative's room to make some coffee. By the time House turned back to the glass, Jack was waiting on the other side, the expression on his face intriguing House, but in a positive way. Jack looked happier than he had done previously, and House was immediately curious to know why.

"Good news, Doctor House. We have seen great improvements in Holly Byrne's condition since I last spoke to you. Her temperature has dropped and she is breathing more easily. Looks like she will be alright as well. If all goes well, and the rest of Holly's symptoms disappear soon, we should be able to come out in a couple of days, once we're sure the disease has gone completely and there is no chance of further infection."

House smiled in genuine relief and Jack's eyes widened at the sight.

"Great. I'm going back upstairs to tell the others. Contact me if anything happens."

Jack nodded and watched House walk away, still slightly surprised at the transformation the news had brought on in House. Cameron was definitely a good influence; the hospital was a less painful place to be since she started her relationship with House. Jack made a mental note to ask her how she did it and then erased it almost immediately, deciding he didn't actually want to know.

--

House entered the conference room, walked across the room and turned to look at Wilson, Chase and Vikki at the table.

"Right. Update on Cameron and the others is positive. Holly is showing signs of improvement and they should all be out in a couple of days."

Chase sighed. "Brilliant."

Wilson smiled. "That's great House. So Allison will be back soon."

"That's the plan."

"So can I get back to doing what I'm paid to do? I've had to cancel a lot of appointments in the last few days."

"Sure. Go, hug dying kiddies, cry with middle aged women, tell them their life is precious, all those clichés."

Wilson rolled his eyes. "There's more to it than that House. They need me to help them."

House stared at Wilson and an understanding passed between the two men. "I know." Wilson turned to go. "Wilson?"

"Yes House?"

House looked down at the ground where his cane was tapping on the carpet and found his eyes drifting over to the area where a large blood stain – his blood – covered a part of the carpet. He pulled his eyes away after a few seconds of looking at it. "Thanks."

He turned and walked into his office, not looking up at Wilson's small smile or Chase and Vikki's incredulous looks of amazement.

Wilson left, and Chase and Vikki sat still in their chairs in shock. A few seconds later, House walked back out of his office, holding a mug on his way to the coffee machine, where there was still some of the beverage brewed from earlier.

He stopped walking when he saw Chase and Vikki.

"You still here? Is it just Wilson who has important work to do elsewhere?"

Chase shook himself. "You said thank you."

House's eyebrow arched. "And you said you weren't British. People say all kinds of things."

"I'm not British. I'm Australian." Chase rolled his eyes before replying automatically.

"Same thing."

"London to Sydney is a distance of over ten thousand miles."

"So? It's about three thousand miles from New Jersey to California. It's still America. Distance doesn't matter."

"It's not the same. There's water between England and Australia."

"There's water between Hawaii and the rest of the country." House countered.

Chase shook his head. "Anyway, the point is, you said thank you. You thanked someone."

"I've done it before." House carried on walking towards the coffee machine, stiffening his shoulders a little in defence.

"Not without a sarcastic tone." Chase pressed on despite the warning vibes coming from House.

"I was grateful to him." House said shortly. "Now go and do something useful and get out of my way. I'm sure there're things for you to mess up downstairs. You too Doctor Tatum."

"But..." Chase was not yet willing to let the point go and House turned quickly, narrowly avoiding spilling some of the hot coffee from his remarkably full mug onto his shoe.

"That's it. Conversation over. If you're really at a loose end for what to do, I'm sure Cuddy could use some help in the clinic. Do some of my hours if you're desperate for something to do."

Chase pushed himself up from his chair, pulling slightly on Vikki's arm to make her stand too, knowing it was safer not to push House too far. Vikki had watched the whole exchange in silence, a knowing glitter in her eye as she regarded House, recognising his defensiveness as his being uncomfortable with allowing others to realise how relieved he was that Cameron would be alright. He was still afraid, she knew, that the relationship would not last and everyone would be able to guess how much that would hurt him.

Chase and Vikki hastily gathered their things, watched by House's sharp eyes. Chase pulled open the door and held it for Vikki to exit first. Chase was about to follow when he heard House's voice speak quietly from behind him.

"Thank you."

Chase turned his head to look at House to find House not looking at him, instead he was walking into his office with his coffee. Chase was sure what he had heard though and nodded acceptingly at his former boss, knowing that House would see the movement out of the corner of his eye.

Chase left without another word, meeting Vikki in the corridor.

"Did he say what I think he just said?" She asked him as they began to walk together to the elevator.

Chase nodded. "Shows how much of a good effect Cameron's had."

"He really loves her, doesn't he?"

"I think so." Chase pushed the button for the elevator. "Good. She's been waiting for a long time and they seem good together."

Vikki murmured in agreement and they stepped into the elevator together when the doors slid apart. She sighed once they were alone in the small box and rubbed her eyes. "I'm so glad that's over. It was scary for a while not knowing what was wrong. I don't think I could've done that every day. How did you manage?"

Chase shrugged. "It was hard at times but that was more because of House than because of any of the cases. You might have noticed these last couple of days that he's not the easiest of people to work with. He was even worse before he had Cameron. But I'd do it all over again if I could go back. It was a great experience. And after working with House, I know that I can handle working with anyone."

Vikki smiled. "He was a bit much to take at times. But I can see why people say he's a genius."

Chase looked at her, eyebrow raised.

"Oh I still don't like him very much." Vikki said hurriedly, noticing his questioning look.

"Not many people do." Chase paused, thinking. "In fact, I think the list is limited to Cameron and Wilson."

Vikki said nothing for a moment, watching the numbers on the lift display decrease steadily.

"You free tonight?"

"What?" Chase looked at her.

"I was thinking we could go to the cinema. If you still want to."

Chase stood staring at her for a moment before shaking himself. "Yeah, yeah of course."

Vikki looked straight ahead, eyes still fixed on the display but she smiled. "Good."

Chase nodded. "Yes. Good." He repeated.

The elevator reached the ground floor and stepped out.

"I'll see you tonight then." Chase said and Vikki smiled happily back in return.

"Okay then."

With that they separated, Chase to the clinic and Vikki to the lab to help run some tests for other patients.


	13. Chapter 13

Total Lockdown.

Chapter 13.

House sighed and rested his head in his hands. Rubbing his eyes vigorously, he stifled a wide yawn. The last few days had been stressful to say the least and his fatigue was starting to catch up with him. The sun was on the other side of the hospital and the office was full of shadows. The darkness was not helping his attempts to stay awake.

He stood up from his chair and walked over to the sofa, collapsing onto it in the dark. His leg jarred painfully and he hastily swallowed two pills before leaning his head back onto the back of the sofa. Closing his eyes he sighed when the Vicodin quickly began to numb the pain. He breathed deeply and allowed his mind to wander over recent events.

He would admit to being frightened when he knew Cameron as sick but didn't know what was wrong with her or how to fix it. He hated feeling helpless in any situation but when the woman he loved was in danger that fear was a hundred times worse. Relief swept over him as he savoured the idea that she would be alright. The doctor's in the ER had been checking her over at regular intervals and she, Stephen Meyers and Holly Byrne seemed set to make a full recovery.

The tension in House's limbs eased away and he felt his exhausted body falling to sleep.

* * *

"House?" Wilson shook his friend's arm. "House?"

House jerked awake, disoriented before blinking in the oncologist's direction. It took a few seconds for the remembrance of what was going on to sink into his sleep-slowed mind but when it did he jumped up with as much speed as he could muster with his leg.

"What is it? Has something happened?"

"House stop. Everything's okay. I just thought I'd let you know the ER has reported all the symptoms have gone from all the patients. Cameron's okay and they're going to keep them all in there for just twenty-four hours more to double-check the SARS has definitely gone and Allison will be able to come out tomorrow."

Wilson smiled at his friend who had sat down in the chair behind the desk. Through the window he could see the natural light was fading in the in the late afternoon as the sun was already beginning to set. House tapped his cane on the carpeted floor as Wilson spoke and listened intently to every word. Cameron would be back with him tomorrow. His face broke into a genuine smile, the kind that had been seen more and more on his face in the few months since he had started seeing Cameron.

"Great. That's brilliant news." His eyes narrowed as something occurred to him and he leaned over to turn on the lamp standing on the desk. The circle of light barely reached beyond the edge of the desk but provided a little light in the office which was otherwise rapidly growing darker as the day began to draw to a close. "Why didn't the ER page me?"

"They said they did. You weren't answering."

House's eyes wandered over the surface of his desk until they alighted on his pager lying near the base of the computer monitor. He snatched it up and noticed he did indeed have a message from the ER, informing him of everything Wilson had just told him. His eyes checked the time stamp before he looked up at the clock. Half an hour ago.

"How long have I been asleep?"

"I left here to go and 'hug dying kiddies' about two hours ago. Did you come in here straight away afterwards?"

"After I got the two British guys to leave."

Wilson rolled his eyes. "British, right. Fifty per cent right is better than nothing."

House sighed. "You should have woken me up earlier."

"I didn't know you were sleeping. I came here as soon as the ER told me you weren't responding."

House rubbed his eyes. Wilson shook his head slightly.

"House, you're exhausted. There's nothing else to do today, go home." He studied the diagnostician closely. "Go and see Allison, and then go home." He amended.

House considered for a moment before shaking his head. "Can't. Allison might need me."

"Keep your phone on. If anything happens I'll call you the second I hear. I'm not going home until nine and after that the ER will contact you. But you can't stay here. You need sleep."

House stood. "The moment anything happens?"

"The moment." Wilson agreed. "Hear nothing from me and you can presume everything's fine."

House nodded at his friend in a gesture which Wilson understood as being equivalent to a grateful smile from anybody else.

"I'm going to go and see her before I leave."

Wilson nodded. "Of course." Not another word was spoken and Wilson watched House's back as he left the office before leaning over to turn off the desk lamp which was the only source of light in the room, plunging the office into darkness. He left the office and turned towards his office, already late for his consultation with Mrs Sewell about her ovarian cancer.

* * *

Cameron smiled as she approached to glass to see House standing on the other side. As she drew nearer, her eyes took in his rumpled shirt and pale face, sure signs that he had recently woken up from a nap. She was instantly concerned. In everything else that had been going on the thought that he might not be sleeping hadn't occurred to her. Now that she did think about it though, it made sense. If the tables were turned, she would have trouble resting too.

She laid her hand against the glass as a substitute for being able to touch him. She smiled.

"Are you alright?"

He nodded. "That was going to be my opening line."

"Sorry."

He shrugged. "Doesn't matter. ER says you're coming out tomorrow?"

She smiled again, wider this time. "Yeah. I'm feeling a lot better. So are Stephen and Holly, thank God."

"You don't believe in God."He said simply.

"Thank you then."

"I've told you before, I've never made a tree." She laughed slightly as she recalled a past conversation.

"Doesn't mean you're not brilliant at what you do."

He smiled. "Don't need anybody to tell me that but it's nice."

"I know you've never needed any help inflating your ego."

"Maybe not but it's always good."

"Right." She paused for a moment and frowned at the bags under his eyes. "You look tired."

"Thanks." He said sarcastically. "Always lovely to hear from the woman you're in love with."

"Sorry. I'm not saying you look bad, I'm saying you look tired. You should get some rest."

"I was going to go home in a little bit. Well, Wilson is _sending _me home."

Cameron smiled. "Good for Wilson. I knew I could trust him to look after you while I'm in here."

House raised his eyebrow. "I need looking after?"

"You know you do."

House shook his head but smiled all the same. He opened his mouth to say something but abandoned the attempt when his attention was caught with stifling a yawn instead. He managed to keep his mouth shut as he did so but Cameron's keen eyes missed nothing.

"Greg, go home. Sleep. I'll see you tomorrow."

"I'll be here. I want to be here when they let you out. If that means sitting outside the ER all day until I can do that then I will."

Cameron's eyes grew a little teary at this veiled display of affection from the man she loved.

"I can't wait to get out of here. I love you."

"Love you too." He smiled. "You get some rest too. You've been very ill, I want you to recover fully. Speaking of which, I think you should take at least a week off work as well."

Cameron stared at him. "Is there any point arguing?"

"No."

She rolled her eyes. "We'll talk about it when I get out of here. For now, you go home and sleep. If you get much more tired, you'll come off your motorcycle driving back to your place and we that's the last thing we want."

"Wilson's promised to call me if anything happens this evening and the ER will call me in the night if necessary so I'll be here if you need me."

"Thanks." She smiled. "See you then. Love you." She turned and walked away from him. He rubbed a hand over his eyes and, once Cameron was out of sight, walked away to go home.

* * *

Cameron climbed back into her bed and sighed happily. Holly, looking much better than she had previously, smiled knowingly.

"I take it your Doctor House has just been to see you?"

"Yeah he did." Cameron smiled. "How are you feeling?"

"Tired. It's been a long few days. But otherwise good, you know. I can't wait to get out of here." She looked across at Cameron. "No offence. I know you work here but I never want to set foot in this place again."

"It's fine." She looked at Stephen. "Stephen, how are you?"

Stephen was staring into space, apparently ignoring Cameron and Holly's conversation. At the mention of his name, however, his head snapped down to meet Cameron's gaze.

"Mmm? Oh I'm okay. I was just thinking about Liam and Amy... and Sian."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I need to do something to sort that situation out. It's not helping Liam for Sian and Amy to be so clearly hostile towards each other. Well, Sian is less so. Amy just doesn't like her."

"I noticed. It must be difficult."

"It is. Thing is, it's not even like it's Sian's fault that me and Amy didn't work out. I wasn't a great husband to Amy. Sian only came onto the scene after me and Amy split up but I guess it isn't easy to see someone else with your ex. I don't love Amy anymore but I'd hate it if someone was with her and started being around Liam all the time."

"So it's more about Liam than anyone else. Maybe you need to talk to Amy. Make sure she doesn't think you're encouraging Liam to see Sian as a mother or anything."

Stephen nodded. "Something needs to change. I only saw it properly when Amy and Sian saw each other earlier and Liam was clinging onto Amy's hand. He doesn't like it."

Cameron and Holly stayed silent, sensing that Stephen was very busy thinking over important things involving his family and they should leave him alone to do so.

Offering a small smile to Holly and Stephen, Cameron lay down on her bed. As her back hit the mattress, she suddenly felt much more tired as she had done a few minutes ago.

Her eyes fell closed, almost of their own accord, and her body relaxed as she fell into sleep.


	14. Chapter 14

_Hello everyone._

_I've combined three chapters in one in this one. Firstly because I wanted to get to a certain point by the end of this chapter and secondly because one of the chapter I had planned out didn't look like it would be very long at all if I kept it separate. Anyway, hope everyone has a nice day!_

_Oh, and thanks to the anonymous reviewers , Kneazles, Sarah and Brook Billings, who I couldn't thank personally but wanted to mention them here. As always, thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing.  
_

_Jenny._

_

* * *

  
_

Total Lockdown.

Chapter 14.

House opened his eyes and turned his head to look at the clock. The black hands on the plain white face indicated it was 7:15. It was earlier than he had been up in a long time but then he had gone to bed rather early the night before, even forgoing eating for the comfort of his bed.

As if to emphasise this point, his stomach rumbled with hunger and he pulled the blankets off himself. Wincing as he tried to put weight on his leg, he blindly reached to his bedside table where he knew he had left his bottle of Vicodin pills.

Seizing the bottle, he tipped his last two pills onto his empty palm and swallowed them, washing them down his dry throat with the water standing beside the clock.

There had been no news from Wilson or the ER all night, so he could only assume nothing had gone wrong. Cameron was still alright and with any luck she would be out of the ER by the end of the day.

He stared at the empty bottle in his palm. He'd need to go to the pharmacy soon to get some more. He had been taking less since he had been seeing Cameron, a mixture of having something pleasant in his life to take his mind off the pain and careful cutting back on his Vicodin intake. He did not want to be addicted to pain killers for the rest of his life, and having Allison as his partner was a good incentive for trying to cut back.

Still, even if he was taking fewer pills, he doubted he could get through a day without taking any. Even if that day was looking like it would be a good one, as Cameron would be let out of the ER if there were no complications, he couldn't predict when his leg would begin to hurt a lot again.

Once the pain had subsided a little, House stood up and limped to the door, where his cane was stood leaning against the wall by the door. He made his way to the kitchen to make himself some breakfast before he had a shower and left for work. He took a moment to appreciate how strange it was that he was planning the fastest way to work before shrugging it off and speeding his pace as much as he could towards the kitchen.

At eight on the dot, House grabbed his helmet from the table by the door, already clad in his leather motorcycle jacket. As he kicked his motorcycle into life, he felt lighter than he had done in a long while and sped off towards the hospital.

* * *

Wilson held open the main doors for a tired-looking nurse, obviously just coming off the night shift. He was quite tired himself; having stayed late last night to do some paperwork he had fallen behind on while trying to solve the case in the ER. He offered a sympathetic smile to the nurse and glanced over his shoulder towards the car park as he stepped inside the building. His eyes widened in shock as he recognised the figure limping across the tarmac towards the hospital. Wilson glanced at his watch. Twenty-five past eight. He couldn't remember the last time House had been so early for work.

He stood and watched as House drew closer and finally entered the building. He walked the short way across the entrance hall to where Wilson was standing and staring quietly.

"Didn't your mother tell you it was rude to stare?"

Wilson rolled his eyes. "Somehow, I don't think you're in any position to be a judge of politeness."

"Maybe not but I'm learning not to judge others by my own standards." House looked around the hall. "Is it always empty this early?"

"Maybe you should try being earlier once in a while and find out."

House pretended to consider. "No. Thanks for the advice but I will respectfully ignore you."

"Why am I not surprised? When have you ever listened to what I have to say?"

House began to walk away. "Sorry, what? Were you talking?" he called over his shoulder jokingly.

Wilson hurried to catch up. "You're not as funny as you think you are." He cast a sidelong look at his friend. "You're in a good mood."

"Mystery solved, Allison's coming out today, and..." he paused for a moment, thinking carefully, "the fact that it is not swelteringly hot in here seems to indicate that Cuddy has done her job and yelled her way into making somebody fix the heating."

Wilson reached out and pressed the button for the elevator. "You didn't hear anything from the ER last night?"

Instantly House's happy bubble popped. "What? No. Why? Did you?"

"No! No, no, no, I haven't. I was just asking you. I've not heard anything so everything must be okay."

House stared at Wilson before sighing and heading away from the elevator.

"Where are you going?"

"Well now I have to check." House called over his shoulder. "I'll talk to you later, Wilson."

"See you later House. I'm sure she's fine." Wilson called after his friend, earning him a disgruntled glare from the receptionist on duty before turning to step into the recently arrived elevator. The last thing he saw before the doors closed was the back of House's leather jacket as he turned towards the ER.

* * *

"House, I told you everything's fine. Doctor Cameron and the others will be out this afternoon." Jack Davies, looking exhausted, replied as his fingers rubbed his temples.

"Where is she?"

"She's still asleep."

"And you're sure everything's okay?"

"I checked her myself half an hour ago."

"One doctor can miss things. Not me, obviously, but other doctors. Has someone else checked her?"

Jack looked intensely annoyed. "Yes Doctor House. Cameron, Holly Byrne and Stephen Meyers have been checked and re-checked by myself and another doctor and they are no longer exhibiting the symptoms of SARS." He glared at House, irritation obviously getting the best of him. "Now please go upstairs and I will page you if there is any change. Otherwise, Cameron will be released at five o'clock."

With that, Doctor Davies, rather rudely in House's hypocritical opinion, turned on his heel and left House staring into the ER, straining his neck to see if he could catch a glimpse of Allison, even though he was aware that it was impossible from his current position.

Sighing he turned to leave, deciding to go and wait in his office for a little while.

As he entered the foyer he spotted Cuddy coming out of the clinic and tried to turn around and hide down the corridor he had just emerged from but she had seen him.

"House!" Her voice carried across the entrance hall which was still quite empty. He turned and waited for her to come closer.

"How's Cameron?" Cuddy asked the moment she reached him.

"Coming out this afternoon." House replied succinctly.

"Yeah, I know. I meant how is she feeling?"

"She's sleeping. She was feeling better last night."

Cuddy let out a sigh of relief and House felt a little surprised that the situation had apparently weighed on the woman's mind quite heavily. When he voiced this mild surprise Cuddy looked offended.

"Of course I care House! Cameron's a good doctor and more than that I consider her almost a friend. I care about every patient and every doctor in this hospital."

"That's a lot of caring. No wonder you're so stressed out all the time."

Cuddy made a small noise of irritation but made a conscious decision not to rise to the bait.

"What are you doing today?" Cuddy asked, attempting to be innocent but House could clearly see her intentions and he narrowed his eyes. He was _not_ going to do clinic duty. He did not want time to go even more slowly as he waited for Allison.

"Waiting for Allison."

"Well..." She began but House cut her off.

"And catching up on my charting." He said. She might well suspect, but she would never know it wasn't true. All he had to do was spread some work across his desk and pick up a pen if he spotted her coming down the hallway.

Cuddy looked suspicious but before she could open her mouth to voice her doubts, House had turned and was walking away. Suddenly he stopped and made his way towards the clinic. Cuddy smiled to herself thinking she'd won.

"Don't get your hopes up," House called over his shoulder. "I just need to go to the pharmacy."

"Out of Vicodin? They lasted a long time this time." Cuddy said. House turned to her and used his back to open the clinic door. He said nothing but met her eyes and nodded.

He broke their eye contact to walk to the pharmacy to pick up some more Vicodin. Cuddy thought for a moment before walking towards the elevator. Maybe she could convince Wilson to do clinic duty.

* * *

House groaned in frustration. "Do I look like I'm faking it?" he gestured down to his leg angrily. "You've seen me here before, you know I need Vicodin." The man behind the counter blanched at House's forcefulness.

"I can't. Not without a prescription. You know that."

House rubbed his hand across his forehead. Ten minutes of arguing and getting nowhere he was starting to get very annoyed. As if on cue, a twinge of pain hit his leg and he grimaced.

House looked away, determined not to give in to the temptation to throw something at the pharmacist. Glancing behind him he saw Cuddy entering the ER, Wilson in tow, looking less than happy, and House's felt a wave of relief.

"Wilson!" House called his friend who looked up instantly. Seeing it was House he changed course and walked towards his friend.

"Cameron okay?"

"She's fine. She's coming out later on. Listen, have you got your prescription pad on you?"

Wilson reached into the chest pocket of his lab coat and pulled out the pad and a pen. "Of course." He leant over onto the desk and began to fill out a prescription. "The last lot lasted longer than usual."

"Cuddy said that too. Speaking of the devil, has she roped you into clinic duty?"

Wilson nodded and ripped off the paper, handing it over the counter to the frowning pharmacist, who left to find the pills. "I take it she failed with you?"

"I am undergoing a tremendous amount of stress. It would be insensitive of the Dean of Medicine to force me to carry out such repetitive work today."

"Mmm. Meaning you want to sit in your office and wait for Cameron?"

"Yes." House looked around at the waiting area. "Besides, I don't want to be still stuck here later on."

Wilson nodded as the pharmacist returned with the pills and handed them across the counter to House wordlessly. House opened them and swallowed one, pushing the bottle into his pocket once he had done so. Cuddy coughed pointedly across the room and both men looked across at the source of the noise.

Once she had gained their attention, Cuddy held up a patient file and waved it meaningfully, her eyes fixed on Wilson.

"I better go House. Let me know if anything happens."

House nodded and Wilson left to take the proffered file from Cuddy while House left to make his way upstairs.

* * *

The day passed slowly, but uneventfully enough for House.

Around midday he was bored enough to consider actually doing some of the charting he had spread liberally across his desk. He soon decided against it however- that was what he employed a team for, although it would still be a few days before they returned.

Personally he felt that the last few days were evidence of what he had been asserting all along- he did not need a new team. As cocky as Foreman had been, and as irritating as Chase had been, and as overly moralistic as Cameron had sometimes been, they worked wonderfully as a team, the three of them and the new team didn't quite match up.

He wouldn't fire them though. They were useful enough for entertainment value, and to do the department's admin work. Besides, the experience would be beneficial for them. If they could put up with him then they deserved to be doctors.

As bored as he was, he never considered going down to join Cuddy in the clinic. Wilson had returned upstairs around one o'clock and had left to his office after coming in for a short chat with House.

At around half past four, House looked up at clock and smiled. He rolled the oversized tennis ball he had been throwing and catching for the last hour across the floor and it comes to a stop underneath the desk.

It may be a little early to go down to the ER but he headed off anyway, grabbing his cane from its resting place against the desk as he passed. _Hopefully,_ he thought, _they'll let her out a bit early. What difference can half an hour make?_

He reached the elevator and the doors slid open almost immediately after he pressed the button, conveniently the elevator had already been on his floor. He stepped in and travelled down to the ground floor before exiting the elevator and limping towards the ER.

He settled himself on the benches across from the glass doors and watched the activity inside. It seemed a lot calmer and he guessed there had been no unexpected developments. His eyes flickered across to the clock impatiently and when they moved away again, Jack Davies was standing on the other side of the glass, beckoning House closer to him. House stood up, leaning his weight on his cane to help him and went over to Jack.

Jack nodded in greeting. "Wanted to let you know everything's okay. We're just doing the final checks now but it looks like nobody else has been infected and Miss Byrne, Mr Meyers and Doctor Cameron have all been treated successfully."

House nodded and felt a relief wash over him. Jack, sensing House was not about to say anything anytime soon, turned and left. House smiled to himself and turned, preparing to go and sit back down on the benches. As he did so, he heard somebody approach from the left. Turning his head, he saw Sian, looking more rested than she had the day before, but no less worried.

She sat beside him, not looking at him, staring instead into the ER.

"So, is everything...?"she trailed off questioningly.

"Looks like it."

Sian sighed and covered her face with her hands. When she lowered them she was smiling. They sat in silence for a few minutes, joined shortly by Liam and Amy (she and Sian politely ignored each other), an middle-aged woman who House assumed was Holly's mother, Wilson and finally, Cuddy, offering a comforting smile when she caught his eye.

House stared steadily at the doors, standing when a nurse approached on the other side. House didn't know quite what he was expecting but on some level he supposed he was surprised to find there was no more fuss than her simply opening the doors and removing her mask.

The patients who had not been affected by the contagion left first, some met by relatives, some alone, some already pulling out their phones to call a loved one or a taxi once they had left the hospital. House was uninterested in them.

Holly, Stephen and Cameron were amongst the last to leave. Stephen met Sian in a fierce hug before releasing her to crouch down to Liam. Holly was enfolded in a strong embrace almost as soon as she had entered to corridor by her mother.

House wasn't interested in all these happenings. Allison had stepped into his view smiling happily at him as she came closer. She walked quickly towards him and he met her halfway, wrapping both his arms around her, his cane fell to the floor with a clatter that nobody heard in among the activity in the hallway.

For a moment they simply stood, holding each other close before he bent down to kiss her. She smiled against his mouth as he clutched her to him. She lifted her arms around his neck as he kissed her more deeply and they stood together in the emptying hallway.

Finally they pulled apart but remained standing close to each other. House, his eyes closed, rested his forehead against hers and she looked up at him. She smiled, a wide, happy smile at having him so close again and pressed a gentle kiss against his slightly parted lips. The pressure caused him to open his eyes and he leant back a little to look into her eyes properly.

"Welcome back." He smiled affectionately at her. She grinned.

"Thanks. I mean it Greg, you're brilliant." She stroked gently ran a finger along his cheek. "I love you."

His response was quiet but that did in no way diminish its meaning. She felt it in her heart as though he had shouted it and it meant so much to her when she thought about how often he had said it in the last few days, knowing how difficult it must have been to express it in the beginning.

"I love you too, Allison." He bent down to kiss her again, a short, sweet kiss.

"Doctor Cameron?" Holly stood a little awkwardly to the side, shadowed by her mother.

"Hello Holly." Cameron smiled at her warmly and lowered her arms from around House, but remained standing close to him.

"I take it this is your Doctor House." Holly grinned. "I see what you mean. He's cute."

Cameron looked at House lovingly and nodded. Holly looked at House.

"Thank you Doctor House." House shifted on the spot, as always uncomfortable with an expression of gratitude from a patient. He forced his eyes up to meet Holly's, accepting her thanks wordlessly. Holly looked between House and Cameron. "Thanks to both of you. That's all I wanted to say." She turned and she and her mother walked away, Holly looking back once before they turned the corner and were out of sight.

Next Stephen stepped up. "Thank you, you two. Especially you Doctor House."

"You're welcome Stephen." Cameron said while House smiled slightly at her side. Stephen nodded at Cameron and House and he too left. Sian waved a quick goodbye as she left. Amy and Liam followed, and Cameron smiled. She hoped they worked out a better way of getting along soon, for Liam's sake if not their own.

House looked down at Cameron and drew her back towards him, kissing her again. After a short while, they moved apart again and Allison leaned around him slightly, unable to move much because of the tight hold he had on her, to look behind him.

"Hello Wilson, Cuddy." She nodded and smiled to each of them in turn and was rewarded with a smile in return from each.

Wilson spoke first. "Hi Cameron. How are you feeling?"

"Wonderful." She smiled at him and then at House. "Thanks Wilson. For helping him." She and House turned until they were side by side facing the other doctors. House's arm around her back seemed to be both affectionate and in lieu of his cane, which still lay on the floor.

"It's not a problem. He's been more insufferable than he has been in a while without you." He gestured towards House who shot an irritated glare at his friend, probably, Wilson thought, more because Wilson was taking up too much of Allison's attention than because he was annoyed at Wilson's comment.

"Well, I'm back now."

Wilson continued smiling at her, but said nothing more and Cameron turned her gaze onto Cuddy who did not look entirely comfortable with the situation. To her credit, however, she smiled warmly, if a little shakily, at Cameron.

"Doctor Cameron." She greeted. "I'm glad you're better."

"Me too." She kissed House's jacket covered shoulder quickly in appreciation of what he had done for her. In response he pulled her a little closer. Observing him, Wilson noted that he appeared to be a little unsteady and he quickly retrieved House's cane from the floor, handing it back to his friend to prevent him leaning too heavily on Cameron, who was only newly recovered.

House accepted it wordlessly with a nod of thanks that made Wilson sure that he himself had also been worried about how much weight he was putting on Cameron.

"Well, it's great to have you back with us. Take some time off. As much as you think is necessary." Cuddy said, her eyes fixed on Cameron.

"Don't worry. Greg's going to make me take some time off. I'm not sure how long."

"At least a week." House interjected.

Cameron rolled her eyes. "We'll talk about it."

"As long as you need." Cuddy said and she and Wilson left.

Once she and House were alone, the corridor now completely cleared of the last patients to the ER, Cameron looked up at the clock on the wall.

"Are you going home now?"

House nodded. "Come on. You're coming back to stay with me for a few days." He looked down at her. "It really is great to have you back."

"It's good to be back, trust me. I missed you."

"I missed you as well. Now come on." He gestured with his cane and, keeping one arm around her back, he led her out of the hospital.


	15. Chapter 15

Hi. I have two more chapters (not including this one) planned for this story which are already partially written so it really won't be long before the next chapter is up. I'll post it by the end of the weekend. Have a nice day. Jenny. ---

Total Lockdown.

Chapter 15.

As she was not at her strongest, Cameron decided against trying to hold onto House's jacket on the back of his motorcycle, and House decided he didn't want her to drive her car. So, House drove her car to her apartment with Cameron sitting in the passenger seat.

They didn't stay long; only long enough to pick up a few changes of clothes and some essential items for her stay at Greg's. House sat on the couch while Cameron stuffed clothes, a toothbrush and a hairbrush in a small bag and was back by his side within minutes.

House was flicking between channels on her television and thinking he would have to persuade her to get more channels on the thing for when she came over.

"You need TiVo. Or at least more channels." He looked over at her. "Ready?"

"Yes." She nodded and held the bag aloft. House turned off the television with a press of a button on the remote.

"Good. Let's go. There's better stuff on TV at my place." He glanced at the bag in her hand and raised his eyebrows. "That's all you're bringing?"

She looked at the bag too. "It's enough. You think I need more?"

He shrugged. "Don't know. We'll come back if you need more." He couldn't help thinking though, much as it frightened him to admit it even to himself, that it would be simpler if they took all of Allison's things to his house. He pushed the thought from his mind. They'd only been dating for a short while. It was much too soon to be thinking about moving in together. Still, a sneaky little voice in the back of his mind whispered that he had moved in with Stacey much faster and he loved Allison very much.

Instead of dwelling on these thoughts, he ushered Cameron out of the apartment ahead of him, taking her key from her to lock the door behind them.

"The lock sticks a bit." She explained as he turned to lock the door. "You have to lift the key up as you turn it to get it to work." She stood patiently, bag in hand and smiled at him once he had managed to lock her temperamental door.

"Does nothing at your apartment work?"

Cameron rolled her eyes but smiled, glad to be back to their easy conversation, sarcasm and all, after being away for a few days. She wouldn't have thought she would miss his sarcastic comments but she had. She didn't like to see him worried. It hardly ever happened; even when his patient's were at death's door, he was somehow still assured of himself and his abilities. When she had fallen ill, however, she had seen that disappear, replaced by a fear that, no matter how he tried to hide it, she could see and it had scared her more than the knowledge of her infection. If House was worried, it could only mean bad things. She hadn't doubted him for a minute but he had doubted himself and that was painful to see.

Once back in the car House reached over to retune the radio and, for a brief moment Cameron considered stopping him, but decided against it. He'd get his way in the end. She sat back silently while he settled on an acceptable station and started humming along quietly. Cameron looked over at him and couldn't stop herself grinning at the sight. House saw her out of the corner of his eye and glanced across at her quickly before turning his head back to the road.

"What?"

Cameron shook her head and moved her gaze to look out of the window. "Nothing."

"You were smiling. Why?"

"Am I not allowed to smile?"

"You are. I just want to know why."

Cameron laughed and House smiled at the sound. "You always need to know everything."

"You're right so...tell me why you were smiling."

"You were humming."

"That's it?"

"Yeah. That's it." She smiled. "I missed you."

House removed one hand off the steering wheel to lay it on top of hers on her knee. He squeezed briefly before he had to move it to change gears.

"I know. But it's over now."

A little while later they pulled up in front of House's place and House turned off the engine. They walked up to the house, and Cameron stood a little way behind him as he opened the door. She followed him and dropped her bag by the door. He strode over to the refrigerator and pulled open the door. The light spilled across the floor as House stooped slightly to peer in it.

"Want a drink?"

"Okay." She walked over to him leant on the counter behind him, staring at his back.

He pulled out two cans of beer and passed one to her on his way towards the couch. When she didn't move he called back to here. "Come on then. I need something to look at."

She followed and sat down in the space next to him.

"You know, you don't have to pretend like nothing's happened."

"It's over now." He repeated his earlier words and reached over to pick up the remote control from the table but she beat him to it, snatching it and placing it behind her on the couch where he could not reach it. His fingers closed on nothing and he sighed.

"Don't think I won't go back there. The fact that you've put it near your ass is going to encourage me, not stop me."

Cameron ignored this statement. "You were afraid."

"What do you expect?"

"Don't get defensive. I was just saying."

House rubbed his hand over his eyes and turned to face her more fully on the couch. "Of course I was scared. You could have died."

"I know." Cameron shook her head slightly as if to dispel the unpleasant thought. "Believe me, I know. But you were there. And I knew you'd do whatever you could."

"But what if 'whatever I could' wasn't enough? It's taken long enough for us to get together. I love you and I don't want to lose you yet."

"Yet? What makes you think you're going to lose me at all?"

He turned away but Cameron grabbed his hand, forcing him to turn back to her. "Greg?"

"It doesn't matter Allison. Can you just leave it?" His voice contained a hint of anger but she pressed on regardless.

"Greg. Tell me."

"Allison..." He was warning her now.

"Please. Just tell me. Nobody else is going to know. It's just us."

House stared hard at her, deep into her eyes and she stared right back, refusing to look away or flinch under the intensity of those blue eyes. Finally she had to blink out of necessity, breaking their little staring contest and the spell that had descended upon them.

"Allison... I've told you before. I'm too old for you. Too cynical."

"And I told you I don't care. I love you Greg. And you're right. It's over. I'm going nowhere."

He looked down and she ducked her head to regain eye contact. "I mean it."

He seemed to think for a moment, insecure despite her words, before deciding to accept the truth in her eyes. He smiled. "I love you too." He leaned over and kissed her deeply. She pulled back slightly.

"I thought you wanted to watch TV."

"Nothing good on until later." He recaptured her lips and placed his hand on the back of her head, holding her to him firmly but still allowing her the ability to pull back of she wanted. She didn't want to. Instead she moved closer to him, wrapping her arms around his back as he kissed her. ---

Chase stood in the entrance hall, waiting for Vikki to join him. As he thought about the events of the day, he smiled. Everything was alright. The last few days, with Cameron and the case, had been stressful to say the least. His time working for House had been beneficial and interesting but he had thought that once he was fired, he wouldn't have to deal with those sorts of cases again. He hadn't missed it- the uncertainty, the fear, the not knowing what to do. His patients nowadays came to him with a diagnosis in hand. He knew what was wrong with them and he knew how to treat them.

He shifted his weight from foot to foot, uncomfortable staying in one position for too long as he had been on his feet all day.

But it was over again and he had to admit he had missed that thrill- knowing that he had been part of the team that had saved a person's life where others were stumped. He smiled fondly at the thought of Cameron. They may not be dating any more but he cared about her a great deal. She was one of the best friends he had ever had. He was glad she was happy with House, even though six months ago he would have sworn House would never admit to how he obviously felt for the pretty young immunologist. He didn't think it would be easy for either of them; they'd have their difficulties just like every other couple but just like every couple, they'd work through it if they could.

He had thought about being there today when she got out but wasn't sure House would like her ex-boyfriend being there, and wasn't sure Cameron would be very comfortable with it either. So he had stayed away. He would call her later but he had to move on with his life, just as she was with House.

His thoughts were broken by the arrival of Vikki.

"Hi. So sorry I'm late. One of the samples I was testing took longer than I thought and-" she sighed, "Anyway, sorry."

"It's okay. I haven't been here that long."

"Have you spoken to Cameron? How is she?"

"Cuddy told me before that everyone is fine. House took her home. I'll talk to her later."

Vikki nodded. "Good. I'm glad everything's alright." She smiled. "So... drink?"

"Let's go." He pushed open the heavy glass door and gestured for her to leave ahead of him before following into the New Jersey evening.


	16. Chapter 16

_Hi again._

_This is the second to last chapter, although the next one is really more of a short epilogue. Just want to say thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far. Have a great day._

_Jenny._

--

Total Lockdown.

Chapter 16.

A few days later Cameron woke up in bed and stretched. Her eyes snapped open when her extended arm came into contact with nothing and she turned her head to see she was indeed alone in the bed. She sat up and listened intently for a moment. The sound of plates clinking together told him he was in the kitchen and she flopped backwards onto the bed once more.

A moment later the door opened and she lifted her head to see House standing at the entrance. He smiled to see she was awake.

"Come on. Breakfast. I'd bring it to you but, one, I can't hold two plates, a cane and open doors without breaking something, either a plate or my arm, when I fall, and two, I don't want toast crumbs in the bed." Cameron threw the covers back and followed him to the kitchen where he was already sat down at the table.

"Your team are back today aren't they?" She asked him as she sat opposite him and reached for a slice of toast lying on the plate in the middle of the table. House gave a little shudder.

"Yes, unfortunately." He seemed to stop and consider, tilting his head to the side. "Although that does mean more people to delegate my clinic duty to so it's not all bad."

Cameron smiled and shook her head. She swallowed the toast she had in her mouth. "I'm sure it'll be more interesting than my day." She sighed. "I'm fine now and still you and Cuddy insist I need more time off."

"Just a few more days. Anyway..." He nodded towards the television. "_I_ have TiVo. Just be happy you're not at your place."

"If it'll shut you up-"

"Probably won't."

"- I'll get TiVo for when you come over."

He nodded. "Good." Once again, as they had been doing increasingly often recently, his thoughts strayed to the idea of her moving in. If she moved in with him, her getting TiVo wouldn't be a necessary measure. They could just watch it together. He watched her drinking her coffee from across the table, smiling at him over the rim despite how it must taste, being made by him.

He picked up his own cup and took a tentative sip, surprised when it seemed actually drinkable. He was getting better now that she had shown him how to do it. Not that he'd ever let on to this new-found ability at work. As much as he liked people to know how brilliant he was, it wasn't worth having to make his own coffee.

She looked at the clock on the wall behind him. "You're late."

"I'm always late."

"You're _very _late."

He sighed dramatically. "Fine."

"Come on, you know you can't miss work. You don't want to be fired."

"I have tenure. Anyway, Cuddy would never fire me. She loves me."

"Yeah, 'loves' is the word."Cameron said sarcastically. "But you're right. She'd never fire you."

"Glad you agree." House drained his cup and stood, grabbing his cane from where it was resting against the table. He gave her a quick kiss before picking up his bag and slinging it over one shoulder. "See you later."

"I'll be here. Bored, but here."

"You'll find something to do."

"I'm looking forward to going back to work."

"Just relax for a few days. I'd think it was great if Cuddy made me take a few days off work."

"Only because it'd get you out of clinic duty. Otherwise you'd go crazy without your puzzles and you'd crack within days."

House considered the truth of this statement. "Okay I'd love it if Cuddy made me take a few days off clinic duty."

"So you could concentrate on sitting in your office, talking to Wilson and bullying your team."

"Ah, the joys of being a boss."

Cameron looked to the ceiling in mock-despair.

"Better go. They're not going to humiliate themselves." He kissed her again and left.

Cameron smiled at the closed door through which he had just left. He had been very attentive these last few days, ensuring she had everything she needed and was comfortable. He didn't seem able to accept the fact that she was feeling totally better. He was still being so careful with her. She hoped he would stop treating her like a five year old soon but at the same time she rather enjoyed the care he was showing her in his concern. Their relationship was going better than she had ever dared hope at the beginning.

She looked around the empty room and sighed. Now what? She thought for a moment before heading to the bathroom. She might as well have a shower before deciding on something to do. She had a few hours to kill 'taking it easy' before he would be home again.

She stopped short. Did she just think of Greg's house as 'home?' She shook her head, dismissing the thought before continuing in her path to the bathroom.

--

House pushed open the door to Wilson's office, where his friend was eating lunch, and sat down in the chair facing the oncologist.

"I want her to move in with me." He said immediately, prompting Wilson to choke on the mouthful of sandwich he had just bitten off.

Once Wilson's violent coughing had subsided (House watched calmly as his friend struggled with his food) he stared at House through watery eyes.

"You need to chew before you swallow." House said unhelpfully. "It's difficult I know."

Wilson ignored this. "Cameron? You want Cameron to move in with you?"

"No, Carmen Electra. Her publicist says she doesn't like to be stalked but I think she's just playing hard to get."

"You want _Allison Cameron_ to move in with you?"

"My girlfriend, yes." House said slowly, as if he thought Wilson was a bit stupid for not grasping this.

"All of a sudden you want her to move in with you?"

"It's not 'all of a sudden.' I've been thinking about it for a while. She's been at my place for a week and I don't want to throw anything."

"So after a week you want her to move in with you because she doesn't make you want to destroy something?"

"No. After three years of dancing around what I feel for her, I want her to move in with me because I love her."

"Okay." Wilson waited but House said nothing more, instead opting for fiddling with the pens in the holder on the desk. "And you want... my opinion?"

House nodded almost imperceptibly but still didn't look at Wilson, who sighed.

"You love her?" Nod. "She loves you?" Another nod. "You want to move in with her and think it could work?" Nod. "Do you really need or want my opinion?" This time House met his friend's eyes and nodded silently once more. Wilson was touched. His friend genuinely seemed to want his advice. "Were you going to do what you wanted anyway?" A smile spread across House's face and he shrugged as if to say 'probably.' Wilson grinned. "Ask her then."

House stood and walked to the door.

"House?" House paused with the door to the corridor open. "I think it's brilliant." Wilson smiled at the diagnostician who nodded and left the room with a smile of his own on his face.

Wilson picked up the half eaten sandwich before grimacing and setting it back down. The memory of a clump of ham sandwich lodged in his windpipe had suddenly made him lose his appetite.

--

They had been sitting on the couch watching the television in silence for maybe an hour when House spoke.

"Move in with me?" His voice came out in a rush and she lifted her head from his shoulder to look at him. He was staring straight ahead at the television, his face illuminated by its glow, but she knew him well enough to know that his attention was focussed solely on her, despite what his outward appearance would suggest.

The question surprised her. Of course it did. It took so long for them to get together and she hadn't been certain that he would ever want to make their relationship more than it already was (and it was already fantastic.) But thinking about it, House was House. He treated everything like he did one of his cases. Once he had made a decision, or a diagnosis, he carried on with it, sometimes with intensity bordering on obstinacy, despite all the evidence being to the contrary. She loved that about him.

Something occurred to her. That meant he had made his mind up about her; about them, once and for all. She had already suspected as much but to see it laid out on the table for her filled her with joy.

She thought about his suggestion. Living with Greg. Being here with him. Waking up with him, going to sleep with him, and all the bits in between. A grin spread across her face. As if she needed to think about it much. It would be brilliant. If he was serious that is.

"You mean it?" She was unable to keep the smile out of her voice and inwardly cringed at how much she sounded like an excited little girl at Christmas knowing that a doll was waiting for her under the tree. She hoped he hadn't noticed her tone but if the grin that had spread across his face was any indication, he had.

"Yes." He said, still not looking at her.

"Alright then." She beamed up at him when he turned to face her.

"Good." He pulled her tighter into him and she replaced her head on his shoulder as they both returned their eyes to the programme playing on screen. If asked, though, neither could tell you what was happening on screen as their attentions were still on each other.


	17. Chapter 17 Epilogue

_Hi,_

_Here's the last chapter, everyone. It's been a lot of fun and I hope you all enjoyed it. A huge thank you to everyone who reviewed and to everyone who has read this far. I really appreciate it and thank you for all the support I've had in reviews and messages. Hope you all enjoy the epilogue._

_Jenny :)  
_

* * *

Total Lockdown.

Epilogue.

A week later Cameron turned from unpacking the box which was resting on the kitchen table at the sound of a male swearing. Wilson was by the open door hopping slightly due to the rather heavy box he had just dropped on his foot.

"Are you alright?"

Wilson looked up. "Yes it's just... I'm fine thanks Cameron."

"Don't worry about it Allison. That foot's lost all feeling. Too many of his angry wives and other people's angry husbands stamping on it have deadened the nerve endings." House announced his arrival from the bedroom where he had been putting some of Cameron's clothes away. "I know these things. I'm a doctor. And a brilliant one at that."

Wilson rolled his eyes. "I'll take that as a 'thank you Wilson' even if it wasn't meant as one."

House limped over to the kitchen, kissing Cameron as he passed on the way to the fridge. He studied an apple shaped magnet on the door – a new addition from her apartment – sniffed as he considered it, decided he could tolerate it and opened the fridge door.

Cameron laughed a little at Wilson's last comment. "Seriously Wilson, thanks. You didn't have to give up your Saturday to do this for us."

"Are you kidding? And miss Gregory House doing something like this?" He scratched his cheek, eyeing the box he had dropped warily before sighing resignedly and leaning down to pick it up again.

"All the same, thanks. I'm sorry it's just us three. I asked Chase for another pair of hands but he already had plans. He's taking Vikki out again."

She pulled a toaster out of the box and started untangling the wire that had become knotted during the travel from her apartment. "It seems to be going well between them." She smiled to herself at the thought. Chase deserved someone and Vikki seemed good for him.

"Want a beer Wilson?" House asked, his head hidden behind the door of the refrigerator.

"Okay then." He turned around, looking for a nearby surface to set the box on that wasn't already covered in unsorted items from Cameron's apartment.

"Allison?"

"Please." She plugged in the toaster at an available outlet and brushed her hair back from her forehead.

House pulled out three beers and walked over to the couch. "Take a break, come on."

Wilson, unable to find a convenient surface, set his box back down on the floor and Cameron pulled her hands out of her half- unpacked box of kitchen appliances to join House where he had seated himself on the couch.

Wilson sat in the chair at the side while Cameron took her place next to House, his arm falling naturally around her shoulder as she curled into his side.

House smiled down at her as he handed her a drink. Wilson grinned at the sight and picked up his own beer from the table.

For her part, Cameron was feeling elated and had hardly been able to stop smiling all day. When she had remarked upon this to Greg, he had simply looked at her and told her he couldn't tell the difference from her usual happy mood. She had taken the subtle, but not malicious, jibe at her demeanour, hidden in his tone, without complaint and personally felt this was a good indicator of just how good she was feeling on that particular day. As for her hospitalisation, she now felt completely better, totally free of illness and content with life.

A year ago, she thought, if somebody had told her that she would be moving in with the man she had loved for such a long time, she'd have told them they were crazy and pulled out her prescription pad to recommend they see a psychiatrist. But now it was happening. Everything she had wanted.

She pulled off the top from her drink bottle and took a sip, relaxing into the crook of her boyfriend's arm and let his and Wilson's conversation wash over her.

She believed she'd grown up a lot in the last few years, since meeting Gregory House. She wasn't naive enough to think it would be the stuff of fairytales. Some days, when he was being particularly difficult, she wanted to give up and she didn't imagine that he would stop being challenging once they moved in together. But she hadn't yet lost the strength to fight him, and he was careful not to push her too far. So no, it wasn't perfect. But it was close enough to be right for them.


End file.
